HYMNS FROM A BURNING HOUSE: HAITIAN DISPOSSESSION
Client: Cornell AAP
Photography/Video: Anson Wigner
2023
Photography/Video: Anson Wigner
2023
"I wish I could testify that I came to know my heritage because of my easy feeling of belonging. But it was a foreign intimacy that let me know how much heritage mattered. As I went out into the world, I was troubled by the dispossessive force of disruptive stories, when my innocent questions were confronted with tales of poisons, zombies, and capture; of unreliable actors and insurgency; of riches, pearls, and unfounded debts. I was troubled and fascinated by these stories, which blurred the boundaries of history and humor, and found myself struggling to untether myself from what might be a great folktale or might be a vital lineage. I longed for the fleeting feeling of freedom I knew as a child, when my father would tell me stories of my heritage, of Haitian heroes and of the Haitian Revolution. It broke my heart as I grew older, to hear my father say over and over, "Did you see Haiti is on fire again?" I'd witness distorted images of a church on fire, women looking dazed in the street, and these terribly beautiful photos of bedrooms, couples tethered to each other in embrace. I hesitate to represent these images, though I feel the need to call attention to the ease with which we make a spectacle of Haitian suffering — and to illuminate how Haitian women's brilliant experiments with homemaking, intimacy, and the performance of daily life are often overlooked."
Funding is provided by the Cornell Council for the Arts.
See here for exhibition details. Scroll down for video.
Installation, Exhibition
Funding is provided by the Cornell Council for the Arts.
See here for exhibition details. Scroll down for video.
Installation, Exhibition
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