From the Open Space Archives is a thematic digest of content culled from the last five years of posts on Open Space.

Desirée Holman, At the Kitchen Table with Football, 2007

This time of year – football season – where I’m from in Alabama “Roll Tide” isn’t just a cheer heard at Crimson Tide games, it’s an ardent salutation. When you run into a friend on the street during a fall stroll: “Great to see you, Allie. Say hello to your mother. Roll Tide.” When you finish a business phone call: “Thanks, Liz. Great to hear you are on board for the meeting. Roll Tide.” When you order a beer: “Keep the change. Roll Tide.” Whether you are into football or not, there is no avoiding it. So, in honor of my homeland, here are a few posts loosely associated with the ethos of the South, both charming and complex. Roll Tide.

• Living in what seems like a post-post-post everything culture, where discussion around art and design can often feel circuitous and insular, the purist notions of doing good that characterize these neophyte creatives’ ideas is more refreshing than the air conditioning in my plantation house room. Eric Heiman’s “Dispatch from Alabama #1” –> http://blog.sfmoma.org/2009/06/dispatch-from-alabama-1-cynics-need-not-apply/

• “Happy Birthday, William Eggleston, and Bobbie Gentry” by Suzanne Stein  –>  http://blog.sfmoma.org/2012/07/happy-birthday-william-eggleston-and-bobbie-gentry/

• Beyond museums and contemporary art magazines, post-Katrina New Orleans seems to oscillate between hyper-visible and invisible. Adrienne Skye Roberts on Lewis Watts –> http://blog.sfmoma.org/2009/08/a-sustained-presence-the-photography-of-lewis-watts-on-the-4th-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina/

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