Massacrer le vide

Abstract

“My practice centres around Haitian spiralism, a literary, philosophical, and artistic movement which was founded by René Philoctète, Jean-Claude Fignolé, and Frankétienne around the late 1960s. Spiralism defines the relationships between chaos, creativity, and resistance. The title for this painting was borrowed from a line in Frankétienne’s “Fleurs D’insomnies” (1986): “Comment massacrer le vide?” How do we massacre the void? Can we fill a bottomless hole with love? Haitian visual cultures and Vodou spirituality also infuse my works. In Vodou rituals, “jete dlo” is to throw water to invoke the lwas. I embodied this motion as I began painting with watered down paints and oils. Free gestures allowed me to layer texture and pigment intuitively. Just as spiralism teaches us that disorder and unpredictability can give rise to prophecy and endurance, I approach art as a chance to turn and turn and turn between what I know and what could be.