Vodou Things: The Art of Pierrot Barra and Marie Cassaise

Pierrot Barra and his wife Marie Cassaise create and sell their "Vodou things" in the ramshackle Iron Market of downtown Port-au-Prince. Their art is the most astonishing that the author of this fascinating book has encountered during more than a decade of researching Vodou in Haiti. He considers their work, which celebrates and evokes the powerful gods of Haiti, to be the most original Vodou art in the world. From refuse, junk, kitsch, and Roman Catholic imagery the artists assemble startling creations that have given a new direction to "postmodernism" and "outsider art". Using rubber dolls, sunglasses, holy cards, barbecue forks, goats' horns, speedometers, rosaries, costume jewelry, mirrors, Christmas ornaments, crucifixes, sequins, and velour, they create sculptures that portray the fiery and potent gods of Haiti. No matter how Barra and Cassaise's appreciators may choose to label their art, these artists remain deeply Haitian and profoundly devoted to Vodou. Their sculptures capture the teeming, rich cultural history of their country, a land that is sustained by distant memories of Africa, haunted by the imagery of Catholic saints and Masonic regalia, and bewitched by imported kitsch from Hollywood.