The Art of Labour: Past As Promise
The Art of Labour: Past As Promise
The Art of Labour: Past As Promise invited artists to reflect on inheritance, memory, cultural stewardship, and the visible and invisible forms of labor that shape communities across generations. Rooted in the understanding that New Orleans is both a living archive and an ever-evolving cultural landscape, this exhibition asks artists to consider how the past informs the present and how contemporary creative practices contribute to the city's unfolding future.
Beloved Community is hosting a series of events to discuss how New Orlean’s rich past has informed contemporary ideas and experiences of labour.
La Chambre: Art, Identity, and French-Creole Dialogue, Alliance Français, Thursday October 1st, 6:30pm, RSVP here
New Orleans Ecosystem: The Art of Labour, TEP Center, Friday, October 2nd, 1pm
What We Carry Forward - Opening Exhibit, Martine Chaisson Gallery, Doors open at 5pm, Panel at 6pm
Inquiries about sales? Please contact info@dcdgco.com.
Featured Artist: Carl Harrison, Jr.
Carl Harrison Jr. is a New Orleans–based multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and land steward whose practice explores inheritance, memory, land, and the ways communities carry knowledge across generations. Rooted in the St. Roch neighborhood, his work moves between photography, film, collage, installation, agriculture, and beekeeping, often drawing from family archives, oral histories, cultivated landscapes, and the living traditions of New Orleans.
Harrison’s work considers acts of keeping as forms of creative and ancestral labor. Growing food, tending land, preserving stories, maintaining cultural practices, and caring for one another are all part of this practice. Through his artistic and community-based work, he examines what we inherit, what we choose to protect, and what we are responsible for leaving behind.
Three Sisters (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
What We Carry (In Our Hands) | Archival pigment photograph | Size 16in × 20in | Edition of 10 + 2 AP | 2026
Mirliton (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
Trinity (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
The Sweetness We Keep | Archival pigment photograph | Size 16in × 20in | Edition of 10 + 2 AP | 2026
Okra (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
Tulsi (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
what the earth keeps | Archival pigment photograph | Size 16in × 20in | Edition of 10 + 2 AP | 2026
Rosemary (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
Black Eyed Pea (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
Cayenne (Portraits of the Carried) | Size 13in x 19in | Digital collage, Archival pigment print | Edition of 15 + 2 AP | 2026
WHAT WAITS TO BECOME | Archival pigment photograph | Size 16in × 20in | Edition of 10 + 2 AP | 2026