May 4, 2026
"And everything I see from now on will be something new"
Hello.
Hours after I got back from Waveland, I saw Marcia and Matthew’s shows at Parlour Gallery. I was in the gallery longer than I had planned and a parking ticket was waiting on my windshield. so I thought about art and parking. Art and Parking could be a coffee table book full of photographs I didn’t take (because who thinks about how parking conditions are going to change. The first time I went to a gallery in Chelsea in New York City, several garages still housed taxis on those streets. There was an abundance of parking. I’m trying to remember why we were in a car at all, it being New York—who even had a car? And where did the taxi garages go? There are more parking spaces when galleries are just taking root.
Even before the cost of a parking ticket exceeded my current hourly wage (doing manual labor for the plot and the groceries), art viewing downtown came with a touch of parking stress. Which of course has me thinking about where and how in our lives and cities art shows up. And what is the parking like when the galleries are young verses established?
If you’ve been to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. or the National Gallery in London (or most art museums in London) or Crystal Bridges in Arkansas, you know how it feels not to pay to see art in a museum. The people at the desk greet you without of transaction—Hello. Welcome. I have thought about how the price of admission affects the way we engage with the place and the art. Before now, I hadn’t thought about the price of parking.
Parking is a hidden cost and rarely mentioned stress related to seeing art in many places. Even when I was flush, I didn’t like paying for parking. In theory, one can take public transportation. In New Orleans, the busses are more or less effective depending on where you live. From Chef Menteur in New Orleans East it takes over an hour one way to get to Ogden.
Was that a boring tangent? I like thinking about the spaces where art and life meet. At five in the morning on Monday.
xx,
e
PS: Here is some art on view in or near New Orleans. I’ll post more about the shows at Parlour on Thursday.
Marcia Mahoney, Re|structure and Matthew Tohmé, Fractals at Parlour Gallery
These shows have me thinking about surfaces and edges, titles, audience participation, and how artists (and their art) relate to the ancestors (and the canon).
Vicinal Visions: Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeyer & Dorothy Hood at Ogden
My ANTIGRAVITY column dropped on May Day. It openes,
Last month, Artemis II successfully completed a lunar fly-by. I felt conflicted about this: Should we Americans be flitting around in space when we are currently causing so much grief on Earth? On the other hand, sometimes it’s beneficial to see a thing—a planet or a painting—from a distance…
(My favorite line of the piece is about Clement Greenberg, that bossy unc. So fun to write.)
ANTIGRAVITY is available in print at most chill local haunts and online. (The PDF is posted on the 1st or you can find it on the landing page a few days.)
The Bird Show at Studio Waveland
I wrote a bit about this show, though not so much the show as the point and purpose of exhibitions. PLEASE take this survey about point and purpose if it interests you. (No parking issues in Waveland).
The Situation in Arabi
It was much easier to encounter the art on view at the Ford Plant without the event, the outfits, and the existential crisis they helped trigger. It’s still a confusing art show or cluster of art shows. One lady by the door complained that she had been there for hours without seeing anyone in charge. I get it but personally, I’m fine with that. I’ll say more about this work later.
(Parking is easy at the plant. 44 minutes on public transportation. Worth it especially if you tack on a stop at Old Arabi Lighthouse Records and Books.)
Studio Visit with Brian in Michigan
I had a virtual studio visit with my new ex-ford internet artist friend Brian Caiazza who I met as a result of my previous visit to Arabi and also the coincidence of seeing his post about having gotten laid off from Ford a year ago. I got a video tour of his works in progress. We talked about the point of contact between art and design, as well as scale, dog bowls, and how context steers an art experience. One thing that stuck with me—I’m still thinking about it 2 days later—is that we need artists and and artist-designers to dissolve the hard water of habitual, unexamined engagement with the world. We live this life in our bodies among material and objects. Art—and lately I’m realizing design—keep us raw to that brief fact in a crucial way.
Outro:
Adding on the hours…
Just read your review of Hood's show. Even before doing so, after prompted, I thought of Gil Scott Heron's Whitey's on the Moon.