Art and About

Artists on shrimp boats? A new UH project turns creators into shrimpers

Houston owes a lot to Galveston, but the areas are somewhat removed. The projectaims to connect them.
Eric Leshinsky
Zach Moser
The Shrimp Boat Projects aims to define Houston's cultural identity by engagingin Galveston's local economy,
Artists-in-residence Zach Moser and Eric Leshinsky invite students and thecreative community to shrimp in hopes of inspiring derivative works.

Idaho has the potato. Maine has lobster. Louisiana has crawfish.

The fruits of the landscape have inspired each of these regions to develop an individual identity — inciting economic growth, development and discussion — in addition to serving as a catalyst for artistic work. In many ways, these natural resources determined the cultural products the regions offer.

The new Shrimp Boat Projects — co-created by scholar Zach Moser and architect Eric Leshinsky — hopes to understand the cultural macrocosm of Houston through a single activity: Shrimping. This multi-year residency, supported by the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, aims to explore Houston's regional culture through the study of Galveston Bay. It will bring artists, designers, musicians, writers and students onto the boats to do actual shrimping, with the idea being that this experience will inspire future works.

Moser believes that culture evolves from people's relationship with the land.

"As a native Houstonian, I was looking for ways to define and celebrate a regional identity for our city that we can all be proud of," Moser says. "I wanted to understand the area and in turn, make it a better place."

The residency is in its beginning stage. As Moser and Leshinsky develop their hypothesis, they will be working as shrimpers to further understand values that intersect issues of ecology, economy and culture, followed by inspiring derivative work to further explain their findings to a wider audience through diverse disciplines.

"The boat itself is something of a platform or vehicle for creating new work and for introducing people to a place that they may live close to but don't really know," Leshinsky says. "Houston comes out of Galveston Bay, owes a lot to Galveston Bay and yet that area is somewhat removed from the city itself. We are trying to connect these two."

Teaming with the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, School of Art and the Interdisciplinary Art program, the Shrimp Boat Projects will also offer classes that explore how artists writers, historians, geographers and scientists are affected by regional cultures.

"The Shrimp Boat Projects encompasses curriculum, public programming and research, establishing a dialogue with our students who are able to engage with our local industry and region through this artistic lens," Nicole Laurent, Mitchell Center for the Arts communications and special projects director, explains. Established in 2003 in Cynthia Woods Mitchell's memory, the center fosters interdisciplinary learning, making the arts relevant in contemporary life.

"The people we bring on our boat to help us work Galveston Bay as shrimpers, whether students, visiting artists, designers, writers, musicians, we want those people to then be inspired to create new work that may be a response to a place that they, in theory, know a little more about," Leshinsky says.

The bay contributes roughly 30 percent of the commercial fishing income in Texas, 95 percent of that being attributed to shrimp, crabs and oysters.

And for most shrimpers, the profession borders on a lifestyle.

CultureMap's Art and About correspondent Joel Luks interviews Zach Moser, Eric Leshinsky and Nicole Laurent.

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Movie Review

Jude Law battles white supremacy in real-life crime thriller The Order

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Jude Law in The Order.

White supremacy has long been a stand-in for evil in movies, with the correlation easy to make given the strong ties to Nazi Germany. Whether a film puts forth white supremacists as its main characters or supporting ones, their usefulness in a story is as people who are easy to hate and that deserve to be held to some sort of justice.

While that idea holds true in the new film, The Order, the nature of the group featured is somewhat muddled. The central figure is FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law), who essentially sets up a one-man task force in the Pacific Northwest to track a group known as The Order. Husk is convinced that the group, which is an offshoot of a larger white supremacist organization, is behind a series of bank robberies to fund anti-government schemes.

Husk recruits local police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) to help follow the group, which is led by Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult). The two, joined occasionally by FBI agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), do their best to keep up with The Order’s increasingly bold crimes, which morphs from “just” bank robbery to murder.

Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, the film is at its best when it delves into the personalities of its characters. Husk’s monomaniacal nature is great for his job, but not so much for his family life. Bowen has a solid bond with his wife and kids, but his greenness in law enforcement leads to some questionable decision-making. Mathews, like many cult leaders, is a charismatic person with very misguided tendencies.

The filmmakers set up the plot (which is based on a real-life story) well, but the details get a little loose as the film goes along. While The Order has a hatred of Jews, a plot against radio personality Alan Berg (Marc Maron) doesn’t make much sense in the context of the film. The geography of the group’s operations is also confusing; they’re located in Washington, but they range out as far as Colorado and California to commit their crimes.

Still, the inherent appeal of good-vs-evil keeps the plot mechanics going, and the side stories of the main characters give them a depth that makes up for other faults. The filmmakers also make sure to demonstrate how the scourge of white supremacy has never been limited to one particular era, and continues to infect American society to this day.

Law commits fully to the lead role, giving a performance with a convincing American accent that is far from the suave British parts which have dominated his filmography. Hoult proves equally believable, giving his character a nuance that somehow makes him more detestable. Sheridan adds another interesting role to a career that would be enviable for any other young actor.

While The Order doesn’t rise to the level of an awards contender, its story is still relatively compelling with antagonists that, unfortunately, never go out of style. A great cast playing characters with engaging lives keeps the film watchable even when it goes into some odd detours.

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The Order is now playing in theaters.

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