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:: VOODOO CHILD The Art of Edouard Duval-Carrié ::
THE ISLAND OF HAITI has a blood-soaked history filled with oppression, rebellion, and corruption. Once France's wealthiest producing colony, its imported African slave population, totaling 500,000, was stirred to revolt in August 1791 by a ritual animal sacrifice performed by Boukman, a Vodou houngan, or high priest. Blood oaths championing freedom were made, and 13 brutal years of fighting French, English, and Spanish colonizers followed. It was an era of international upheaval, and documents like The Rights of Man and The Declaration of Independence were being drafted and implemented.
The ultimate leader of this particular rebellion, former slave Toussaint L'Ouverture, was so successful at galvanizing his rebel forces that he captured what is now the Dominican Republic and proclaimed himself "Governor General" of the entire island in 1801. His reign was short lived; he died in a French prison in 1803. A scant year later, in January 1804, his loyal general, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared independence, eradicated slavery by freeing every citizen, and created the first "Black Republic."
Vodou mysticism, historical events, and political angst permeate Edouard Duval-Carrie's first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast, at the UCLA Fowler Museum. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1954 and trained at the Ecole Nationa!e Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Loyola University, Montreal, Duval-Carrie now makes his art in a studio in the "Little Haiti" district of Miami. When he was a boy, his family was forced to flee the island of Haiti for political reasons. He lived in Puerto Rico for a time, and his pilgrimages included a trek to the Republic of Benin in West Africa, the ancestral home of the divinities of Vodou, a religion and way of life in Haiti that he incorporates into his work, as well as his practice.
Looking at Duval-Carrie's work, you can trace the mythologies of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), the Duvalier Regime (c. 1957-1990), and the region's Vodou religion. Divine Hevolution is a series of sequined and beaded "drapos" (flags) based on the artist's paintings of revolutionary themes. The flags are spiritual emblems honoring Vodou divinities, but Duval-Carrie also makes them political symbols. He depicts the martyred hero, General Toussaint L'Ouverture, in an elaborate, tri-colored French uniform, clutching Haiti's first constitution in his left hand, while his left foot crushes the head of a serpent, symbolizing both the demise of the French, or Duvalier, regimes and the patriarchal serpent divinity, Danbala. Other bejeweled drapos reference the economics of slave labor serving the privileged white European colonials.
The flags are actual reproductions from a commission Duval-Carrie received from the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Haiti's first democratically elected president) for the 200th anniversary of Haitian independence in January 2004. The originals were destroyed (as explained in the exhibition's catalog) when Aristide's celebration was met with violence that resulted in his removal from the country: "The burning of cultural heritage, including government-commissioned works by Duval-Carrie, was indicative of the anger and unrest brewing beneath this island-nation's political veneer. Yet it was also proof of the power of art. The making and the unmaking of art are, and have always been, among the most effective means of voicing political opposition. Like the desecration of Byzantine icons, the burning of Duval-Carrie's works reflects their efficacy." Fortunately, the designs were not lost, and the flags were duplicated for the exhibition.
The show also includes an exquisite group of paintings owned by the Bass Museum of Art and explores the mythological trajectories of the divinities tied to historical political events. The Migration Trilogy paintings show the migration of the Vodou spirits—walking chained together through forests and floating across vast oceans. The Crossing depicts a boat full of gods, including Baron Semedi, who is the keeper of the cemetery, Gran Bwa as the tree pointing down toward the African children lost at sea, and the water spirit Simbi seated in front with a question mark over his ear, indicating an uncertain itinerary. This trilogy mirrors the forced migration of slaves from Africa and the often futile and treacherous attempts of Haitians fleeing the violence and oppression of their own country.
The artist's own words express his appreciation for both man and spirit: "[Spirits] are the true representation of the people, and for me they are the soul of Haiti. The whole pantheon is created in the image of man.... First of all, they are there to provide for the people and to help the people and to be part of them. They look like them, too. Of course, I put my imagination into it, because there is a lot of fantastic activity. But basically, I'm talking about the Haitian people when I paint the spirits, and their capacity for being more than they really are."
In a time when we need to be more than we really are, Duval-Carrie's bizarre images reference a tragic but familiar history of man combating prejudice, greed, and unchecked power. Using the richly symbolic visual language of Haiti, the artist fuses the spiritual and carnal experiences of a country trying to liberate itself from powers that cater not to the many, but to the few.
Divine Revolution: The Art of Edouard Duval-Carrie /s an exhibition and catalog organized by the UCLA Fowler Museum. For more information about this artist, visit www.fowler.ucla.edu.
juxtapoz #55 Mar/Apr 2005 pgs. 64-96
