Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Voodoo art in Port-au-Prince

Although I'm not a big fan, on the way to Jeremie I pretty much have to spend a night in Port-au-Prince. When I was there recently, I stopped by this voodoo artist's workshop. Some of it is interesting, some is scary, some is probably illegal and some is simply perplexing.

Here's the owner of the workshop, Andre:Along with this close-up of some of his personal work:This is the type of stuff that *may* be illegal. Just today I was told that it's not uncommon for graves to be undug, so thieves can steal and sell the bones -- particularly skulls -- for voodoo ceremonies, etc.

I found this one -- and all of the baby head on soda bottle pieces -- a bit disturbing though. Kinda reminded me of the Chucky slasher films:Coupling the disturbing doll head soda bottles with the assorted baby shoe artwork left me feeling a bit off:But here's one piece of work that I found interesting:

Tim White

2 comments:

Bonni said...

Definitely very interesting. I agree w/the Chucky assessment. Thanks for sharing your adventures. 8-D

Tim White said...

Hey Bonni... I almost forgot. The freaky baby head with the wig is actually smoking a cigarette butt... but then I also recall my first weekend here (in October). I went to the beach and there was at least one kid -- definitely a pre-teen -- who was drinking a beer very casually with Haitian adults around. Definitely a different culture.