Who’s Watching These Watchmen?

As explained in the last post, Sunday was a streetcar hunting day. Besides the lunch at Parkway Bakery, we went to see, as Nola called them, “the bunnies at the brewery.” She said they were part of Prospect.1, so we figured we had to check them out immediately because P.1 was ending that day.

So here’s “da bunnies.”

It ends up that it’s not part of Prospect.1, but part of a project by the Arts Council of New Orleans called “Art in Public Places.” A grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation is financing the project, 19 other installations can be found around town. Here’s T-P art critic Doug McCash’s run-down of the project.

The bunnies are by artist Alex Podesta. They’re actually self-portrait mannequins. McCash called “them Bugs Bunny meets the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Podesta has featured the bunnymen (is one named Echo?) in an exhibit at the CAC earlier this year and explains the meaning behind the madness here, and there’s a harrowing tale of bunnies on fire here.

The installation on top of the Falstaff Brewery building are not the first sculpture to adorn the top of that industrial complex turned condos. King Gambrinus has ruled over the area for ages. The Podesta clone/bunnies lording over the back of the brewery are called City Watch, which leads to the title of the post. It reminded me of the soon-to-be-released superhero-type Watchmen movie, and the phrase behind that title, “who’s watching the watchmen?” After all, I look forward to the day when a bunch of cloned guys in bunny suits are all the superheroes New Orleans will need.

These steps out at NOMA are part of Art in Public Places, too. (The trailer is part of Prospect.1, Paul Villinski’s Emergency Response Studio). Titled STePs HoME, artist Dawn DeDeaux has placed the lighted steps at NOMA and Loyola University, other venues are coming, and eventually they’ll all be gathered together as one large installation.

Here’s another Art in Public Places installation. Like the bunnies and the steps we didn’t know what this was when inadvertantly stumbling on it while photographing streetcars. It’s Scrap House by artist Sally Heller.

So as one public art project leaves town, there’s more coming to see. And you can always chase down streetcars.