BABETTE BEAULLIEU
CAJUN PRAYER FLAGS and
Louisiana Prayer Flags
2012-2018
Beaullieu and artist/collaborator Jan Gilbert ushered in the 2012 hurricane season with a new hybrid of Cajun Prayer Flags fluttering with deeply textured imagery of Cajun Mardi Gras costumes in Acadiana. This meditation shrine/installation re-purposes the backyard of The Front St. Claude Arts District gallery and its chain link fence.
Paper and pens were provided as an interactive component for passersby, encouraging them to join in by offering their personal wishes and prayers and tying them to the fence amidst its dead, clinging vines. This ritual and these devotional offerings are borrowed and blended traditions from Tibetan, Japanese, and Cajun cultures.
Beaullieu and Gilbert have further developed what they call Louisiana Prayer Flags Project which has traveled several locations across Louisiana, including working with University of Louisiana Lafayette Architecture students for an installation on the A. Hays Town Building in Lafayette. The project has extended beyond the State to communities via New York State schools and Maison Gai Saber artist residency in the Poitiers Region of France.
Since Spring 2012 they have collaborated with communities conducting workshops with all ages gathering stories and valuing heritage and the resilience which arises therefrom. They aim to foster awareness and appreciation for the assets/qualities/tools the culture of Louisiana has to give to the world. Through workshops and installations in elementary schools, high schools, universities and at festivals, they have guided participants in creating original prayer flag designs representing their own personal culture.
Louisiana Prayer Flags- Porch Stories was on view at Urban Sidewalk Installation Space 2017-2018 including as a Prospect New Orleans, P.S. Satellite program venue also appearing as an interactive installation at Goat In The Road’s Get Your Art On (2017) at the Contemporary Arts Center and the Music Box Village (2018). Funded was provided by:
