Hommage to Ste. Anne is a parade made out of bronze and wood that marches on top of a 56” x 144” x 36” mahogany table with a sandblasted plexiglass surface. The height of the piece invites the viewer to be a participant in the chaos. This installation is inspired by the artist’s experience of the Society of Ste. Anne. Every Mardi Gras morning the Society of Ste. Anne marches up Royal Street like an armada of dreams – a long line of maskers with a fantastic array of costumes, the Storyville Stompers, and dozens of fabulous hoops and streaming ribbons. It is impossible to dissect that kaleidoscope, or to convey the exuberance, the sheer delight of being, then and there, that makes the Ste. Anne parade what it is. Together with the rapture of dancing down the street to a brass band, and hundreds of amazing costumes, there is also an undertow of sadness and mortality. The march ends at the river where the ashes of fallen members are scattered with tears. The parade Ersy has created is not a representation of Ste. Anne, but an incarnation of the mystery and pleasure she discovered in Mardi Gras through her friends. Above all, it is an hommage to the great hidden genius of the Society’s guiding spirit, Paul Poche.