Simon Hardeveld, a French sign painter who was featured in one my early 2007 blog posts, is still memorializing the dead with park art.He built a shrine at the corner of Magazine and Jackson to Vera, a Katrina victim whose body lay unattended for days following the storm.
And now, he's erected a cross for the thousands (millions?) of doomed oysters lying on the Gulf floor beneath a liquid blanket of oil.
Other forms of activist public art include bus bench signs put up anonymously along Magazine Street, showing a baby crying for the Gulf Coast. She is our future - one that will be robbed of all the riches we've so enjoyed.
You can reach him at 504-524-8201
my wife loved the signs we were seeing around new orleans by Simon Hardeveld when we visited last year from wisconsin. i've looked online but can't seem to find a place to buy them. any ideas?
ReplyDeleteHis shop is on Jackson at Magazine Street- across from the flag store - Miss Lily's Jackson Flea Market. I don't see a phone number in the directory, but could stop by sometime. It took him almost a YEAR to make me a small sign I commissioned, although you could probably walk in and buy whatever he has on the "floor" - there's a LOT. He's a true artiste in the sense of being sort of disorganized and unbusinesslike. I don't think anything is mass-produced - all unique. You might also try Dr. Bob in the Bywater.
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