30053: Arthur (news) The Sculptors of Grand Rue (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: haitisupport@gn.apc.org

The Sculptors of Grand Rue

(extract from the Haiti Support Group Briefing #60, February 2007)

Haiti has long been known as home to some of the most creative and innovative
artists in the world. Naïve paintings by Haitian artists are now standard
features in tourist markets across the Caribbean, while foreign collectors
continue to buy up works by the papier-mâché workers of Jacmel, the metal drum
sculptors of Croix-des-Bouquets, and the sequin flag designers of Bel Air. Now
LEAH GORDON unveils the latest art phenomenon to explode in Haiti.


Grand Rue is the main avenue that runs a north-south swathe through downtown
Port-au-Prince from La Saline to La Cimetière. It?s a broad, anarchic and
colour-saturated street. At the southern end of Grand Rue, amongst a
labyrinthine warren of back streets is an area that traditionally has produced
small handicrafts for the ever-diminishing tourist market. This close-knit
community is hemmed in on all sides by the makeshift car repair district,
which serves as both graveyard and salvation for the city?s increasingly
decrepit automobiles.

Haitian artists Celeur, Eugène and Guyodo all grew up in this atmosphere of
junkyard make-do, survivalist recycling, and artistic endeavour. Their powerful
sculptural collages of engine manifolds, TV sets, wheel hubcaps, skulls, and
discarded lumber have transformed the detritus of a failing economy into
radical, morbid and phallic sculptures, mainly inspired by the Vodou spirits of
the cemetery, Gede, the guardians of the dead and the masters of the phallus.
These often-monumental works reference  their shared African cultural
heritage,
Vodou practice and a dystopian, sci-fi view of the future. Their use of
readymade components are driven by economic neccessity, combined with creative
vision and cultural continuity.

Vodou all around
André Eugène is the progenitor of the Grand Rue movement. He was born at the end
of the 1950s, two years into the regime of ?Papa Doc? Duvalier. He started out
as a house builder, but influenced by the creative energy of his
neighbourhood,
he started to learn traditional sculpting in wood. ?There was always something
happening in our neighbourhood ? a carnival band practising, many sculptors
working, and Vodou all around. This made me begin the life of an artist.?
Eugène?s work became increasingly influenced by contemporary Haitian artists
such as Nasson, who created wood and nail sculptures reminiscent of African
fetishes found in anthropological museum.

Eugène fused the fetish ?sauvage? with an apocalyptic MTV futuristic vision.
Much of his work is figurative, using human skulls for heads and imbued with a
bold sense of irony, sexuality, and humour. His piece ?Section Chief? ? the
name of the Duvaliers? brutal, rural henchmen ? wears a pink dress split by a
three foot long metal penis curving up to the heavens.

Jean Hérald Celeur was born in the same neighbourhood, in the mid sixties, and
trained as a sculptor under the guidance of his brother. At first he was
involved in the more traditional, touristy end of the market, but gradually,
under the influence of Eugène, his work slipped to the dark side. ?Since I was
young I have been attracted to the dream of becoming a sculptor. At the
beginning, my work was very realistic, but over time it grew more subjective.
Where I am now, leaves me more space to be imaginative.?

Menace, anger, and a dark sexuality
His most powerful piece to date is in the permanent collection of the Frost Art
Museum at Florida International University. The untitled work evokes the
horsemen of the Apocalypse ? human skulls crown three skeletal equine
contraptions made from motorbike chassis, with the central figure thrusting a
wooden carved phallus. The piece is bristling with menace, anger, and a dark
sexuality evoking the triple tragedies of AIDS, political oppression, and
poverty. ?My work has social aspects, intellectual aspects, and represents the
people's demands for change. I live in the reality that deals with poverty
everyday, and this informs my work all the time.?

Guyodo was born in the Grand Rue district in the early seventies. He?s the bad
boy of the trio, rarely smiling and modelling a self-styled, Gede gangster
look with a collection of huge black shades that would put Jackie O. to shame.
He has created some of the most monumental works of the trio, huge dense
sculptures using the chassis of derelict vehicles. His smaller works use silver
paint and colour with a fresh flamboyance unseen in the other artists? work.

?Before I started as a sculptor, I was a football player. Celeur pushed me into
becoming an artist, and now it is my whole life. You have to have strength and
maturity to be an artist in Haiti. It is really difficult being an artist in
the
Third World; you don?t get recognised in your own country. Unfortunately, it is
only people from very far away who are taking any interest in our work.?


André Eugène, Jean Hérard Celeur, and Frantz Jacques Guyodo are part of the
Atis Rezistans movement in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
www.atis-rezistans.com

 A Haiti Support Group reception for the  artists, Mario Benjamin, Jean Hérard
Celeur, André Eugène and Frantz Jacques Guyodo, will take place on Thursday,
March 1st at Four Corners, Bethnal Green, London. There will be a screening of
the short documentary film, ?E.Pluribus Unum? by Maxence Denis, and a
presentation by the artists with questions & answers, and refreshments.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.