Mark your calendars for a special Trouser House presentation at the New Orleans Museum of Art this Friday, February 3 from 5-10pm. The event is hosted by Artfully AWARE–an organization that promotes international awareness through art education. This weekend, Trouser House will present work by New Orleans-based artist Margot Herster and students from Marrero Middle School.
With this exhibit students have responded to a selection of works from After You’ve Been Burned by Hot Soup You Blow in Your Yogurt—a multi-media installation by Herster. The work in this series explores how photography shapes our reaction to emotionally charged environments–focusing on the relationship between detainees at Guantanamo Bay and their families overseas.
The selection of Herster’s archive comprises a series of photographs of detainee family members along with their personal correspondence, offering a deeply sentimental and unique look into the lives of people from the Middle East. These intimate stories tell the tales of detainees with everyday family woes, dreams for marriage, and connection to the landscape they call home.
For Artfully AWARE, students from Marrero Middle School have made a series of “portraits” in response to Herster’s work. Each “portrait” includes an image that represents the student’s community and a text-based piece that describes an important element of the place they call home. The exercise and resulting installation provides students with an awareness of the similarities and differences between two communities that are separated by thousands of miles of land and sea.
Artfully AWARE will be held at the New Orleans Museum of Art on Friday, February 3 from 5-10pm.
from Pictures from Home, Margot Herster (2004/2011)
from Pictures from Home, Margot Herster (2004-2011)
