Passage. One word so succinctly sums up so much. It could mean the small cuts, trenasses, and bayous that New Delta traveled through with contemporary artist Regina Agu as she revisited many of the sites painted in the 19th-century by artists who were trying to convey the uniqueness of Louisiana’s watery frontier. Or, it could be the changes, the passages, that the landscape and people went through as humanity colonized the delta since that time.
Regina’s 100-foot-long installations that hang in the entry to the New Orleans Museum of Art set the tone for “Inventing Acadia: Painting and Place in Louisiana.” Her work titled, “Passage,” felt almost airy compared to the dense scenes showing the landscape before humanity clear cut, moved out indigenous folks, and built levees. The size of her work is massive, consuming most of the wall space in the museum’s Great Hall. Yet when people walk past, the canvas moves like the water and roseau in the art. The piece defies the solid landscapes of a Louisiana past like the below.
Life Along a Louisiana Bayou 1877 Everett B. D. Fabrino