Art Speaks Loudly: Floodwall

http://floodwall.org  I’ve been documenting the work of dear friend and artist Jana Napoli for 25 years now. After the levees failed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, inundating her beloved city New Orleans, she began walking the devastated neighborhoods and studying the insides of each home cast out onto the sidewalks. The 700+ abandoned drawers she collected became the building blocks for Floodwall, an art installation and memorial to the city and to the families who lost so much.  Out of Floodwall grew the DrawerSpeaks program, where school children were invited to tour the Floodwall installation in New Orleans, Germany and Poland, and were invited to make art in response to the question, “What would you take if you had to flee?”  Here in a few short minutes, you can see the six years of Floodwall, from its first installation in New York City to the Jazz Funeral and Cremation of Floodwall on the banks of the Mississippi River.  Deep appreciation to Marc Sloan, Bonerama and the late, great Tuts Washington for the use of their music.  This video was screened at the Tate Modern in London last year and is being shown at the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans this summer as part of a program called TANK DRAMA: Deliberations from the Wet Grave.