Power Blvd Sculptures

New public sculpture appears on Power Boulevard

New Orleans artist Michael Cain’s 12-foot-tall abstract landscape titled “Dream Walk” was installed this week on Power Blvd. The sculpture made of polished aluminum is comprised of six barren trees and the silhouette of a man.

Quoted from the article on Cain by Doug MacCash on Wednesday September 15, 2010, "Cain said the piece – which he originally planned to call “Ghost Walk” -- was inspired by feelings of confusion and detachment that he felt in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina and the flood that followed. The barren trees, he said, are like the silvery gray trunks of dead cypresses. If you visit the sculpture on foot – as Cain hopes you will – you’ll notice the swirling spiral in the silver man’s head. Cain’s flattened, colorless landscape perfectly echoes the fearful old-fashioned existentialism of Giorgio de Chirico and Alberto Giocometti. Cain said there’s no accessible power on Power Boulevard, so his splendidly shiny sculpture will not be lit at night.
Cain’s installation is one of 13 works currently being placed in public spaces in Jefferson Parish in the $294,000 second phase of the pioneering suburban sculpture program. The majority of the money for the overall project was provided by Commercial Overlay Zone fees, paid by Veterans Boulevard businesses for the upkeep and beautification of the thoroughfare; the rest is from the Jefferson Parish general fund.