Another drawer in the wall

New Orleans artist Jana Napoli spent the winter after Katrina indulging in a new hobby: collecting the abandoned drawers left piled on the heaps of the discarded guts of flooded homes in every swamped neighborhood in the city. For six months she salvaged drawers, dousing each with chemical cleaner and storing them in an Oreck warehouse. Soon her collection reached 600. Now the drawers are part of a traveling art installation, Floodwall, that includes oral histories from several of the original owners.

“[People] are drawn in a personal way because they see an object that looks familiar,” Napoli says. “Through this connection they mourn with us. They remember what was precious and sacred in their lives, and in the intimacy of each empty drawer they have the opportunity to reevaluate what is most precious to them.”

Floodwall will be on display at the Louisiana State Museum downtown July 13 through Sept. 13. floodwall.org