The opulent textile art of constant myrland can be so captivating that seeing it is almost an immersive experience. In the last exhibition of the Haitian artist, Haiti's spiritual world At the Fort Gansevoort gallery, “Devosyon Makaya” (2021-24), extending to almost 12 feet in diameter, animates the small third floor of the historic building. The most recent work of Constant, The Sumptuous Broudemery is also one of its most maximum, its sparkled crowded scene with a rainbow of pearls and glitter surrounded by red acorns. Standing in front, he is impressive and happily disorienting.
Haiti's spiritual world Trace the career of Constant from the 1990s. With only 10 works accompanied by detailed texts, the show is an impressive precise of the artist's foundations, major themes and barriers that she broke.
It is the radiation of the art of Constant – its jewelry colors shone while sunlight catches glitter and seed beads in green green vegetables, ocean bruises and ardent reds – which first attracts attention. His pieces are based on the form of traditional art of Drapo Vodou: flags made by hand often decorated with pearls and applied tissues. Originally designed for ceremonial use (also later for commercial sale), Draco was an art largely dominated by men in Haiti. On the other hand, the first artistic training of Constant came from the practice Embroidery drum As an adolescent in Port-au-Prince (often considered a female technique because of her association with clothing), while working alongside her mother in a wedding dresses factory.
Although spirituality is at the heart of his works, as the title The title of the exhibition, they are made for galleries and museums – in the end, public social environments, not the introspective spaces of spirituality. Likewise, the stories that it depicts, even those which relate directly to devotion practices, often transmit the intertwining of the Spirit and the earthly worlds, and the social relations which bind them.
“Devosyon Makaya” represents members of secret companies; The word “Makaya” refers to both a secret society that may have played a role in Haiti's independence, according to the text of the wall, and an annual celebration of purification and spiritual cleaning which implies leaves and plants. Dense whirlpools of green and gold glitter bring a sense of movement in the symmetrical composition, reflected by circles and spirals along the border and interspersed everywhere. The tiny glass pearls form a kaleidoscopic world of figures and symbols which seem to dance with light like Gran Mèt, the supreme god of Haitian voodoo, observes.
In “In the name of 29 points Cimetiere by Bour Baron on Saturday” (not dated), friendly figures are congested from each other above a stratum of cross, skulls and other death symbols near the bottom of the image. Dressed in purple, black and white, the colors of the GEDE spirits associated with fertility and death in Wish, the figures celebrate Fèt Gede, the Festival of the Dead, and honoring the baron on Saturday, goalkeeper of the cemeteries. Again, Constant combines spirituality and sociality in a portrait of rejoicing.
Other works extend beyond the traditional subject of voodoo by exploring Haiti's history and politics, as in the frontal portrait “Jean-Jacques Dessalines” (c. 2017), which portrayed the leader of the Haitian revolution (1791-1804) and the first leader of Haiti free. And in pieces such as “Marinette Bois Chèche” (c. 1990) – a sparse white scene which pays homage to the feminist prospects of the priestess of the martyred wish – the constant center of feminist perspectives.
The last years have seen a burst of attention from the world of art long deserved for constant: among other exhibitions, the Fowler Museum of the University of California in Los Angeles has mounted a professional survey In 2023, and it was presented in the Biennale de Venice in 2022. Rather than moving somewhere more integrated into the art circuit, she continues to live and work in Haiti, in the middle of social and political instability. In other words, each piece testifies not only to its artistic competence and vision, but also a resolution to create in the face of adversity which is crucial for us all at the moment.
Constant myrland: the spiritual world of Haiti Continue to Fort Gansevoort (5 Ninth Avenue, Meatpacking District, Manhattan) until April 26. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
