Haitian spirits: the complexities of Haiti's cultural history—and current socioeconomic distress—were reflected in a museum survey of highly inventive indigenous work

"Lespri Endepandan: Discovering Haitian Sculpture," presented at the Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami, sought to shed light on a neglected aspect of Haitian art and to celebrate its independent spirit (the title is Kreyol for l'esprit independant). Artists from Haiti have for decades produced distinctive three-dimensional works steeped in the culture of this Caribbean nation as well as in its harsh political, social and economic realities. Installed in a suite of small galleries (F.I.U.'s expansive new museum, currently under construction, will not be completed until late 2007), the chock-full exhibition presented 80 objects spanning some 50 years by 24 Haitian-born artists, with an emphasis on relatively recent production. The show, which did not travel, bristled with raw energy and offered the excitement of encountering entire bodies of unfamiliar work.

Unquestionably, the most striking aspect of the exhibited work was its emphasis on assemblage and the resourceful use of found objects. In Haiti the incorporation of readymade elements is propelled by a combination of economic necessity (the lack of high-art materials), creative will and religious belief. Attempting to offer an inclusive picture of the range of materials and techniques found in recent Haitian sculpture, however, the exhibition included a number of lesser works, some approaching art for the tourist trade.

The exhibition was organized by Elizabeth Cerejido, the museum's curator, with assistance from specialists in the field of Haitian art, especially Reynald Lally, a collector and dealer now based in New York. The well-illustrated but often esoteric catalogue was written by Donald Cosentino, a professor in UCLA's department of world arts and cultures, who in 1995 curated for that university's Fowler Museum a major traveling show devoted to objects of Vodou ritual titled "Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou."

The vast majority of the pieces included in "Lespri Endepandan" were also intimately connected with Vodou, Haiti's national religion. A few of the artists were identified as Vodou priests and dozens of the works represented Iwa (Vodou divinities) or assumed forms inspired by Vodou altars, which are assemblages of everyday objects imbued with spiritual meaning. In many of the works, Christian symbols such as the crucifix and the image of the Madonna are merged with representations of the various Vodou gods, testifying to the fact that for centuries, African slaves in Haiti placated European masters and missionaries by adopting such iconography.

Despite the frequent spiritual content, the title of the Frost exhibition asked that the works on display be viewed as sculptures rather than as ethnographic artifacts. The term "sculpture" as used here entails works created not for ritual use but as components in an art system that includes a collector's market. The show opened with a section devoted to the "Iron Masters." Georges Liautaud (1899-1991), a black-smith based in the town of Croix-des-Bouquets, was approached in 1953 by DeWitt Peters, an American painter and founder of the Centre d'Art school and artists' cooperative in Port-au-Prince. Impressed by Liautaud's wrought-iron grave markers, Peters urged him to expand his repertory of subjects and images, and to create independent works of art for sale. Using scrap iron from empty oil barrels, Liautaud and his soon-to-be school of followers (four--Murat Brierre, Joseph Louisjuste, Gabriel Bicn-Aime and Serge Jolimeau--were included in the show) created cutout figures with lively, expressive silhouettes that represent Vodou deities and spirit possession. Liautaud's many animal reliefs exude a life force and presence reminiscent of the effects achieved by Jean Dubuffet. The "Iron Masters" works on view dated from the 1950s to 1997. While generally small in scale, they are forceful and intense. They vary in form and expression, ranging from a cow (Liautaud) to an intricate Modern Vampire on a bicycle (Brierre) to a frontal relief of a Hat Man with Snakes (Bien-Aime).

The second section of the exhibition was devoted to a small number of "Market Artists" showing freestanding sculptures dating from the '70s to the '90s. The somewhat misleading designation refers not to the art market but to the flotsam of manufactured material that appears in Haiti and is collected by these artists from junkyards and flea markets to make ritual objects.

The final division of the show, "Contemporary Interpretations," presented work made from the '90s to the present, most quite recent. Unfortunately, some of it so closely resembles "market art" that the organization of the exhibition (and accompanying catalogue) broke down. According to Cerejido, some artists in the third section share significant aspects of their personal histories with the "Market Artists"--the fact that they were informally educated or serf-taught, that they today remain quite destitute (and functionally illiterate in a few cases) and that they, for the most part, have never left Haiti's shores. These artists stand in sharp contrast to others in "Contemporary Interpretations," who were educated abroad and who, even if they subsequently returned to Haiti, observe the culture from with out, their art having a more conceptual orientation and critical bent, partaking of international trends (such as installation art). Thus a primary distinction between artists, which the show's organizers were hesitant to draw, is socioeconomic background and the concomitant expansion or narrowing of opportunity and exposure.