
This is immediately evident upon entering the Great Hall. An imposingly quirky selection of oversize contemporary photographs by artists such as Cindy Sherman and Nic Nicosia inject a bracing sense of dialog with the vintage realist works in the inner chambers, setting up a counterpoint between past and present that continues throughout the museum. Contemporary Art curator Miranda Lash and Photography curator Diego Cortez have much to do with this new dynamic, as we see in two new shows. The paintings and videos in Rachel Jones and David Webber's MNEMONIC DEVICES expo are multi-layered investigations into the nature of images and memory. Reflecting a variety of philosophically convoluted methodologies, works like Jones’ RITUAL, above, and Webber's THE LETTER Y, bottom, remain poetic if at times puzzling, effective as spectacle while challenging our sense of what constitutes the resolution we ordinarily expect in works of art. Despite, or perhaps because of, such ambiguities, DEVICES resonates an energetic dynamic of its own. FLOATULENTS by Harry Kipper (aka Martin von Haselberg) is more slapstick, like a room full of sagging oversize balloons bearing caricaturish

~Eric Bookhardt

Through Aug. 23
FLOATULENTS: Inflatable Photographs by Martin von Haselberg
Through Sept. 6
New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, 658-4100; www.noma.org
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