I can has veve?

[bcholmes]

On Sunday, I got invited to go north to a suburb/town called Kwadèbouke. Our reason for going to Kwadèbouke is that it's an area where a lot of metalwork artists live. One of the common artforms in Haiti is metal-working. Haitian artists get metal sheets -- often from oil drums -- and they cut it and stamp it and make some really beautiful art pieces.

The guest house operates at little souvenir shop for all the missionaries who come through. The stuff they sell is mostly made by local artists (other stuff includes things like locally-produced honey and vanilla and some spicy sauces). With few exceptions, the house buys the pieces and then resells them in the shop.

I confess that I'm weirded out when "art dealers" come to Haiti, pay a pittance for the art, here, and then sell it at an exaggerated price back in the States or Canada. I feel like the guest house manages to be reasonable, paying the artists a good price, and not marking it up enormously. Kwadèbouke is pretty far off the beaten path, and it must be hard for the artists to get much exposure to foreigners.

There were some really wonderful pieces, too. I'm especially fond of the big round pieces (which I assume are from the lids of the drums). One artist had some especially good pieces. One member of our party bought a really inspired fish riding a bicycle (I wondered if the Haitians had ever heard that quotation). It had a real bicycle chain and there were other fish jumping around near the wheels. There were a number of pretty large djab images, looking like little devils. Surprisingly, the Catholic guest house didn't get any of those, but one of the members of our party did.

Me, I fell for a big Ezili veve (I was a bit surprised that there weren't many veves -- but there were a lot of images of Lasiren). It was a more silver metal than most of the other pieces, but was beautifully done. The fellow pulled it off of the wall. I glanced up and it seemed like the piece was still on the wall. But no. It was a whole family of cockroaches that were hiding out behind the veve. The artist didn't say anything about the cockroaches and I didn't either. But I checked out the piece very carefully before he wrapped it up in newspaper. Hm.

And then, while we were waiting for one person to make their last purchases, we made out a funeral procession coming down the road. I can't say that I've seen a Haitian funeral before, but this one was very New Orleans in style. There was a sombre jazz band leading a bit white hearse. Sister Mary Alban mentioned that at fancy-schmancy funerals like this one, it was customary to hire mourners to weep and wail and howl. That was a new thing.

Comments

oil drum art

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

wow, that art is gorgeous. thanks! (never heard of it before.)