BRG@BTR
Baton Rouge Airport
Baton Rouge
Flying out of BTR is one of the most chill airport experiences one can have. The airport is so small that TSA feels like a leisurely walk rather than an invasive search – you barely have to stop. You just go. There’s no line, and there are only seven gates.
All this makes the fact that there’s an art gallery in the terminal all the more surprising. But BRG@BTR, a partnership of Baton Rouge Gallery, the airport (BTR) and the local tourism board proudly displays the work of about two dozen Louisiana-based artists both in designated gallery space and on the walls just outside.
Inside the intimate gallery space, a collection of abstractly shaped stars made out of dark blue glass and porcelain peppers the white wall. The title, “Loveletter to my spine” would lead one to assume that their discs from a spine, deconstructed and displayed. The wall panel accompanying it written by the artist, Christopher Brumfield, is that love letter.
“... I find it surreal that I spent so much of my life hating my body and hating the beautiful, flawed dynamic that is me,” he writes. “I walk around with a crooked and broken spine and I spent 80% of every day navigating how to live with that spine. But I am here to confess that I love you, my beautiful spine. You amazing thing. You keep me moving.”
He signs off with “In love and kindness, Christopher.” The work uses blue glass, and if one scans the QR code to read more, they’d find out that it’s because Brumfield “decided that a lifetime is barely enough time to satisfactorily pursue one color and he is trying to stay focused.”
All his work is blue.
Next to it hangs a painting of what looks to be an Illuminati eye inside a rose. It’s “Rose Wire” by Brad Jensen, a local graphic designer and artist based in Baton Rouge who designs local clothing and draws his inspiration from propaganda posters and vintage advertising. The piece is high contrast – red graphics over a mostly yellow background. It pops among the other pieces and really draws the eye.
These pieces, and many others in the gallery, would typically never be hung together for a themed exhibit. They represent different mediums and themes. Many of the artists aren’t from Louisiana or aren’t based here full time. But what brings them together is that at least for part of the year, they make Louisiana home.
Airports are more a space between places than a place in their own right. No one wants to be stuck in the airport. Especially due to unexpected delays or circumstances, but the gallery helps make the airport feel a little more like a real place in itself.
BRG@BTR feels distinctly Baton Rouge. It’s a little piece of the great art culture we have in the city – one that attracts artists from all over the country to make their home in a city with seven gates in their airport to keep creating. It provides a little piece of home before you leave or an opportunity to pause for a welcome back.
