Picturing the South: 25 Years

 

Picturing the South: 25 Years

 

Community Remains, Former Morrisonville Settlement, Dow Chemical Corporation, Plaquemine, Louisiana


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Object Details


Artist/Maker

Richard Misrach, American, born 1949

Date

1998, printed 2012

Medium

Pigmented inkjet print

Dimensions

Please contact the Museum for more information

Credit

Commissioned with funds from the H. B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust, Lucinda W. Bunnen, and High Museum of Art Enhancement Fund

Accession #

2012.9

Image Copyright

© 1998 Richard Misrach / Courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, Pace-MacGill Gallery and Marc Selwyn Fine Arts.

Description

“A rural African American community established since 1870 at a riverside settlement called Australia Point was displaced by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1932 in order to build a levee and relocated to Morrisonville. In the 1950s Dow Chemical expanded into the area, bringing widespread pollution in its wake. Later, the company installed special radios in homes so that the plant could inform people of highway evacuation routes in the event of a spill or accident. By 1989 Dow had decided to buy out most of the residents in the area, dispersing what was left of the original community in order to establish a ‘green’ buffer zone.” —Richard Misrach