COLLAGE ON VIEW
Magic in the Modern World
at Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
1 June-11 August 2024 (during Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2024)
In Fall 2023, Kolaj Institute invited collage artists to visit New Orleans and explore magic as a cultural idea, an ancestral tradition, a construct used by power to subjugate, and as a practice used by others to resist colonization and capitalism. Writer Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” While Clarke was looking backwards, the artwork in this exhibition considers the role of magic in our contemporary, modern communities and what role it may play in the future.
Artwork in this exhibition speaks to honoring ancestors; tapping cultural magic; cosmology and life building; the power of womanhood; the quietude of modern magic; the practice of offerings and rituals; magical colors; spirit animals; magic in the diaspora; punishment of magic and the persecution of witches; and care for spiritual beings.
Also included in this exhibition is Jennifer Evans’ A Memorial to Witches of Dumfries located in the New Orleans Healing Center next door, to the left of the front entrance, across from Island of Salvation Botanica.
This exhibition was curated by Ric Kasini Kadour. Artists in the exhibition are Caroline Alterman, Rodney Boone, Lela Goldstein, Alexandra Montclair, Johanna Merfeld, Bridgette Bramlage, Ariya Aladjem Wolf, Vanessa L Moore, Debi A Barton Haverly, Jennifer Lai, Ihosvany Plasencia, Alicia Zapata, Jennifer Evans, Ric Kasini Kadour, and LaVonna Varnado Brown.
INFORMATION
Kolaj Institute Gallery
Suite 230
2374 Saint Claude Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70117 USA
Hours:
Open by appointment