Empire PR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Miriam Taylor
March 13, 2017 mtaylor11@tulane.edu

high-resolution images available upon request w.504.314.2406 | c.601.278.0623
Newcomb Art Museum presents EMPIRE

A New Exhibition Telling the Story of New Orleans Through the Archives of Tulane
NEW ORLEANS, La. – From April 13 to July 7, 2018, Newcomb Art Museum will present EMPIRE, an
immersive art installation by LA-based artist collective Fallen Fruit, David Allen Burns and Austin Young,
celebrating the New Orleans Tricentennial and commissioned and presented by Newcomb Art Museum, A
Studio in the Woods and Pelican Bomb
EMPIRE uses the vast archives and special collections at Tulane University as the material to create an
intricate visual narrative of New Orleans showcasing its history of transnational trade, cultural rituals and
business practices with myriad cultural artifacts left behind from a stratified society. It is a non-linear
installation that is complex and uniquely American.
The installation explores the diverse narratives of the most northern port city in the Caribbean and the
dynamic culture that emerged from European, African, Caribbean, Latin American and indigenous
influences by actively using historical records, ephemeral artifacts, artworks and objects culled from
various institutions across Tulane’s campus including Newcomb Art Museum (NAM), the Newcomb College
Institute (NCI), the Middle American Research Institute (MARI), the Latin American Library (LAL), the Royal
D. Suttkus Fish Collection / Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute (TUBRI), the Hogan Jazz
Archive, and the Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC) and assembling them in the museum. “We spent
over a year researching the vast historic archives and interviewing each archivist – the process was
rigorous, intuitive, and full of unexpected treasures,” said Austin Young.
Themes explored in EMPIRE are the geographic and cultural position of New Orleans within the Gulf of
Mexico, and its relationship to Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, the conquest of native peoples and
the movement of culture through colonialism, trade routes, and eventually tourism, cultural appropriation,
and the principals of collecting, archives, and anthropology. The exhibition, intended to be one immersive
artwork, invites active participation from the viewer, as a creative interpreter of the displayed objects and
their interdisciplinary juxtapositions – which, like sampling a record, are intended to generate new
relationships and taxonomy of meanings.
“This is not going to be a survey show of any kind, but rather an exhibition about how archives perform on
campus; it is a generative space of portraiture, sound, active looking and active making - where all are
invited to assemble and to enhance the various tapped bodies of cultural knowledge at Tulane,” said David
Burns of Fallen Fruit. “Visitors may have repeat experiences, as with a prism or rainbow’s light spectrum,
and see something different each time. The display is not intended to be encyclopedic, but instead will
-more-
NewcombArtMuseum.Tulane.edu 6823 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70118
communicate universal themes of the human condition.”
The opening for the exhibition will take place on Friday, April 13 with a talk featuring artists David Burns
and Austin Young of Fallen Fruit in the Woldenberg Art Center’s Freeman Auditorium at 6:30 pm. The
public reception will follow from 7:30 until 8:30 pm in the museum’s breezeway, Woodward Way.
Additional programming and events, including an all-ages day of art and fruit-related activities on April 14,
can be found at newcombartmuseum.tulane.edu.
_____
Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin
Young. Since 2013, Burns and Young have continued the collaborative work.
EMPIRE at Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University is part of “Fallen Fruit of New Orleans” a suite of
site-specific projects taking place throughout New Orleans from June 2017 through June 2018,
commissioned and presented by Newcomb Art Museum, A Studio in the Woods and Pelican Bomb.
“Fallen Fruit of New Orleans” was initiated by Pelican Bomb in 2015.
Fallen Fruit’s EMPIRE exhibition at Newcomb Art Museum is made possible in part through the generous
support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Jennifer Wooster (NC ‘91), Lora and Don
Peters (A&S ‘81), the Newcomb College Institue of Tulane University, and the Newcomb Art Museum
advisory board.
_____
high-resolution images available upon request
(left) Proposed Chichén Itzá Castillo behind the Tulane University stadium; view
from Willow Street. Collaged photographs. Photo courtesy of the Middle
American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans; (right) “The
French Quarter” wallpaper pattern, 2018, Fallen Fruit, David Burns and Austin
Young. (The museum walls will be covered in various patterns of artist designed wall
paper created especially for New Orleans horticultural tropes such as satsumas,
magnolia flowers, and oak tree branches covered in moss.)
-end-
NewcombArtMuseum.Tulane.edu 6823 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70118

Empire PR

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Empire PR

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Empire PR

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Miriam Taylor

March 13, 2017 mtaylor11@tulane.edu

Newcomb Art Museum presents EMPIRE

“Fallen Fruit of New Orleans” was initiated by Pelican Bomb in 2015.

high-resolution images available upon request

You might also like