Louisiana
New Orleans artist Hannah Chalew imagines a postapocalyptic Louisiana through reclaimed oil wells
Hannah Chalew salvaged an old oil well from the Poland Avenue scrap yard in New Orleans. She coated it with bagasse, or sugar cane pulp, from Grow Dat, the urban farm in City Park. The paint is recycled, from another nonprofit, the Green Project, and the plants — palmettos, cypress, elephant ear — are largely from the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s greenhouse.
The embedded plastic trash — a toothbrush, a COVID-19 test, an old burned CD — “came from my life,” she said. “Plastic will be a fossil marker of our time, here long after we’re gone.”
The result is an artwork that gestures at what humans might leave behind, a sculpture called “Orphan Well Gamma Garden.” It’s a window into the post-apocalypse, where the stuff of civilization has coagulated around Chalew’s reclaimed steel wellheads, that questions the kind of future that humans are creating, and what might survive us.
Trash is packed into an art piece called, “Orphan Well Gamma Garden” in the back of artist Hannah ChalewÕs studio in New Orleans, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The piece was on display the the CAC in New Orleans during Prospect. 6. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
“I felt kind of like a reverse archaeologist, imagining how some person in the distant future would think about this, like, disembodied sippy-cup top,” Chalew said. “What will the people, or the creatures, who encounter this make of it?”
That work turned out to be only the first in a series of orphan-oil-well-inspired work. A new piece, “Christmas Tree” — named after the Christmas Tree wellheads that pockmark Louisiana’s coastline and are so called because they taper somewhat like a tree — was inspired by a June trip to the mouth of the Mississippi River. There, Chalew saw wells that had become “orphaned.” The companies that owned them had gone bankrupt and responsibility for plugging them had fallen to the state. Some were leaking oil.
She wonders, too, what kind of plant life might recolonize old wells. She embedded “Christmas Tree” with oak wood and resurrection fern — a plant that can dry out and enter into a desiccated, dormant state, and remain that way for up to a century. When exposed to water, the fern comes back to life.
Artist Hannah Chalew poses in a studio in New Orleans, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
She said she wanted to imagine “what might recolonize” old, abandoned fossil-fuel infrastructure.
Chalew’s “Christmas Tree” was just on display at Good Children Gallery part of a show called “Mining for Wonder in the Humdrum.” The show closes Dec. 7. She has work on display as part of another exhibition, called “Fragile Matter,” at the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette.
“I realized that this is a body of work,” she said. “These totemic sculptures are part of an eventual show that will be a kind of ‘orphanage’ of old well sculptures.”
Hannah Chalew’s new sculpture, “Christmas Tree,” on display at Good Children Gallery on St. Claude Ave. in New Orleans. (Photo by Alex Lubben, The Times-Picayune)
‘You don’t need to worry about the radon’
The ‘gamma garden’ in the title is an allusion to the post-World War II, U.S.-led initiative called Atoms for Peace, which sought to find peaceful uses for nuclear technology. The idea was to speed evolution in plants by planting them around a pole made of radioactive metal. (Most of the plants died.)
Chalew named her work after this practice because old oil wells can themselves be radioactive, which she learned as she was building the sculpture. She called up a friend who works at an environmental advocacy group, who told her, “You don’t need to worry about the radon. You need to worry about the benzene,” another carcinogenic chemical that can waft off oil wells.
She tested her wells for both and found them to be free of radiation and toxins.
The legacy of the petrochemical industry has been the focus of Chalew’s work. In one of her recent paintings, “Feedback LOOP,” now on display at the Hilliard, Chalew paints plants as intertwined — as they often are in south Louisiana — with industrial pipes and valves.
An art piece called, “Orphan Well Gamma Garden” stands in the back of artist Hannah Chalew’s studio in New Orleans, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The piece was on display the the CAC in New Orleans during Prospect. 6. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
An oak tree, downed in Hurricane Ida, almost appears to be fighting against the pipes that make up LOOP, an offshore oil hub connected to pipelines that weave their way through Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. As with her orphan well sculptures, the materials are natural or salvaged, with ink made from oak trees and paper made from sugar cane and used plastic.
Her critique extends further, calling out industry’s affiliation with the arts.
Artist Hannah Chalew poses near a pile of dumped metal near Venice, La., Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
She emblazoned the words “HELIS OIL + GAS” on each of the wells, a reference to the one-time Louisiana oil and gas company, which, through its charitable foundation, is a major patron of the arts in Louisiana. By centering this particular well in her work, she is critiquing how the arts in New Orleans are funded. She’s refused funding from grant-making institutions that are linked to the oil and gas industry, she says, and won’t accept support from Helis.
She also logged the carbon footprint of producing and transporting the sculpture at 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide, which she’s tried to offset by planting cypress trees. She considers this a challenge to other artists to consider the environmental impact of their work.
“I want to create these visions that are beautiful, but then as you explore them, sort of unsettling,” she said. “Is this the future we want our descendants to inherit?”
Louisiana
LIV Golf may postpone Louisiana event scheduled for the end of June to avoid World Cup clash
LIV Golf may postpone its Louisiana event scheduled for June due to concerns the FIFA World Cup could impact attendance and viewership.
Issues such as high temperatures and course conditions are also factors in the decision.
The Saudi-funded circuit has been working in coordination with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry’s office and economic officials to find a new date for the tournament in either September or October, the sources with knowledge of LIV Golf operations said.
The tournament is currently scheduled for June 25-28 at Bayou Oaks at City Park.
The World Cup takes place in the US, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19.
LIV Golf, Landry and the Louisiana Economic Development are expected to issue a statement on the matter on Tuesday.
The sources’ comments come less than two weeks after LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said the breakaway circuit’s 2026 season would proceed as planned amid reports that the series is at risk of losing its funding.
The Louisiana event is the only LIV tournament on the schedule during the World Cup.
LIV Golf Virginia at Trump National Golf Club is scheduled to begin May 7 in Washington, DC.
PGA CEO considering pathways to reinstate LIV Golfers
Brian Rolapp says the PGA Tour is considering opening up more pathways to acquire LIV Golf players in the future
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp says the American circuit is thinking about establishing new pathways to reinstate LIV Golf players, amid speculation over the breakaway league’s future.
Rumours have swirled in the past weeks that LIV Golf could lose its financial backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), after the breakaway league was not mentioned in its four-year investment strategy.
McGinley: It’s not going to be plain sailing for the LIV guys
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Paul McGinley discusses LIV’s future, what it means for the players and why the concept hasn’t resonated
Sky Sports Golf analyst Paul McGinley believes LIV players interested in returning to the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour could face multiple “roadblocks” on their way to regaining membership, adding that the landscape on both circuits has vastly changed since LIV’s inception.
“Over the last four years since LIV has been going, all of the spots these 56 players have had on the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour have been filled,” McGinley said during Sky Sports Golf’s coverage of the final round of The RBC Heritage.
“You can’t just muscle your way back into what is going to be smaller fields than the bigger fields that they left.
“It’s not going to be an easy way back in, should they be allowed to do so.
“Also, there are a lot of roadblocks in the way. There would be suspensions, there would be fines, all the kinds of things that have been talked about in the last few years would have to remain in place in order to be equitable and fair to the guys who remained with the main tours over the last four years.
“There’s a lot of negotiation to be done between the main tours and the LIV players, if LIV is going to fold, in terms of what the future may be.
“It’s not going to be plain sailing for the LIV guys.”
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Louisiana
Louisiana’s LHSAA softball state tournament fields are set with the championships scheduled for Saturday
Louisiana’s LHSAA softball state tournament fields are set with the championships scheduled for Saturday originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The state tournament fields for Louisiana’s LHSAA softball championships are set with the semifinals scheduled for Friday, May 1.
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The championship games will then take place on Saturday, May 2, and there are currently three teams alive that are ranked in the MaxPreps national rankings. The Calvary Baptist Academy [Shreveport] Cavaliers are still riding high in the No. 3 position, competing for the state’s Select Division III championship while also harboring national title aspirations.
The No. 39 Sam Houston [Lake Charles] Broncos and the No. 44 Walker Wildcats, meanwhile, were both defeated this week in their pursuit of the LHSAA’s Non-Select Division I state championship. Walker was the #1 seed and lost in a stunning upset Tuesday night in the regionals to the #16 seed Central [Baton Rouge] Wildcats which, in turn, lost, 4-3, to the Hahnville [Boutte] Tigers in the quarterfinals on Friday.
WATCH: LOUISIANA LHSAA SOFTBALL ON THE NFHS NETWORK
Sam Houston was the #2 seed, meanwhile, and the Broncos also lost, 10-4, in the quarterfinals Friday to the #10 seed Live Oak [Watson] Eagles.
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Calvary Baptist Academy, meanwhile, will try to keep its national and state championship hopes alive after winning their two games this week against the #16 seed Fisher [Lafitte] Gators (15-0) and Bunkie Panthers (8-0). They’ll take on the D’Arbonne Woods Charter Timberwolves in Friday’s semifinal with the winner advancing to take on the winner of the Notre Dame [Crowley] Pioneers vs. the Parkview Baptist [Baton Rouge] Eagles.
LHSAA Non-Select Brackets
LHSAA Select Brackets
Key dates for the Louisiana LHSAA softball playoffs
|
DATE |
PLAYOFF DEADLINES |
|
5/1/26 |
Semifinals |
|
5/2/26 |
State Tournament |
National Top 50 contenders by division
Louisiana has three teams ranked in the national Top 50 in the latest MaxPreps rankings. However, it’s likely that Sam Houston and Walker will drop out this coming week after failing to even make the state tournament.
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Division III Select
The Calvary Baptist Academy [Shreveport, LA] Cavaliers are the state’s top-ranked team, checking in at No. 3 nationally. They earned a first-round bye before winning their first two playoff games this week by a combined score of 23-0. They are 35-1 on the season ranked behind the Barbers Hill [Mt. Belvieu, TX] Eagles and the Murrieta [CA] Mesa Rams.
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