It was my pleasure from the collection of Arts New Orleans

It was my pleasure, 2021

Fiberglass, steel, soundscape

88 x 92 x 53 in (223.52 x 233.68 x 134.62 cm)

Location: St. John Park, on Saint Bernard Ave and Allen Toussaint Blvd, between New York St and Frankfort St.

It was my pleasure responds to feminist histories of spirituality and power, through a meditation on ancient Greek history. The sculpture is a reimagining of the tripod of the Oracle of Delphi, a position occupied by a priestess known as the Pythia, who foretold the future for individuals and heads of state who travelled to Delphi to seek her counsel. This position was occupied by women for more than one thousand years (1400 BC to the 4th century AD), and exerted great influence throughout the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian empires; emperors made no significant decision without her consultation.

The sculpture, as well as the scent and sound that accompany it, is intended as a meditative space for contemplation and for honoring divine feminine energy across space and time. Through this sculpture, Pelias seeks to create connections between her native city of New Orleans and her family’s ancestral country, Greece.

The sculpture was commissioned in 2021 for "Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow" and was first unveiled at Capdevielle Place Park. It was purchased by Arts New Orleans for the City of New Orleans Percent for Art Collection and permanently re-sited to its current location in 2024.

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About the artist

Anastasia Pelias

Anastasia Pelias was born in New Orleans to a Greek immigrant mother and a first generation Greek-American father. She received her BFA from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1981, and her MFA from the University of New Orleans in 1996. Pelias has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and museums nationwide, and has been featured in publications including Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Artnet news, ArtDaily, Forbes, Pelican Bomb and New Orleans Art Review. Her work appears in the permanent collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; the Mobile Museum of Art, Alabama; Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, and in private and public collections worldwide.

Pelias’ work has been featured in notable exhibitions including The Whole Drum Will Sound: Women in Southern Abstraction at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in 2018, and Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women in Louisiana at Newcomb Art Museum in 2019 and at the Ford Foundation Gallery in 2020. In 2018, Pelias was commissioned by the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX to to make a site-specific sculpture and painting installation. In 2020, Pelias was commissioned by the Domain Companies to create a 54 foot mural at the Odeon Building in New Orleans. In 2020 she was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist Residency. Pelias was a selected artist in the Prospect.5 Triennial, 2021-22, where she exhibited a site-specific multi sensory installation involving sculpture, a painted landscape, sound and scent.

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About the artist

Anastasia Pelias