ART REVIEW : ‘Vodou’ Works Unveil Triumphant Spirit

Peoples of the world erect religions based on beliefs whose reality cannot be objectively verified. When encountering others holding to different religions, believers have an unfortunate tendency to feel threatened.

Combatting this discouraging syndrome is at the heart of “Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou,” an important traveling exhibition organized by UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

It’s the first fully caparisoned scholarly examination of a subject with which most Americans feel themselves at least casually familiar. “Oh sure, voodoo. It’s either a system of economics or a quaint little cult for folks who believe they can turn people into zombies and take revenge on their enemies by sticking pins in dolls. I saw a really spooky horror movie about voodoo when I was a kid.”

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The exhibition comes with a 443-page catalogue including essays by 15 experts. They politely point out that the above is hogwash. Vodou (their transliteration) can no more accurately be characterized as merely a cluster of irrational superstitions than any other religion. It is a highly original hybrid.

Christopher Columbus “discovered” Haiti in 1492. The native Taino, or Arawak, were soon exterminated. The French acquired control in 1697, populating the island with enslaved Africans. They, of course, brought their traditional religions with them, principally those of the Kongo and Fon peoples. These beliefs were grafted to Catholicism, Freemasonry and a variety of other Western metaphysical systems.

A syncretic, “Creole” culture developed including some 7 million slaves whose religion was vodou. They revolted and in 1804 established the world’s first black republic. That sounds idyllic but it wasn’t. Haiti became the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. From 1915 to 1934 it was occupied by the United States, whose observers fashioned much of the demonizing and demeaning lore surrounding vodou. Encouraged by the Catholic church, “anti-superstition” campaigns tried to exterminate vodou. It just kept bouncing back.

Foreign authoritarianism was succeeded by native repression under the rule of Francois Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude. The closest thing to a break the island has gotten recently was the reinstatement of its first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

All this is reflected in a group of contemporary paintings on Haitian history. All are compelling in the way they combine sophisticated Western spatial structure with the candor of folk art and the magical power of Africa. A particularly striking poster by Pablo Butcher depicts Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier dressed in drag in a wedding gown and holding a pistol to his head.

It’s a wicked satire that was also undertaken by Edouard Duval-Carrie, one of a group of artists such as Hector Hyppolite and Georges Liautaud who formed a “Haitian Renaissance” in the fine arts after World War II.

Although this art became widely known outside Haiti, it is seamlessly connected to the vodou tradition. Examined here it differs from other ecstatic religious art mainly in the range of its expression. Vodou has a supreme deity called Bondye and a panoply of saint-like spirits, the Iwa . They are divided into the benign Rada and the fiery Petwo . All are represented through assemblage using the kind of precious junk poor people can lay their hands on.

Danbala and Ayida Wedo are a serpent couple represented by scavenged commercial dolls’ heads mounted atop glittering metallic and sequined cloth bodies. But they are also represented by St. Patrick. An almost naughty contrast exists between the pallor of adopted Christian kitsch and the carnival audacity of the native spirit. If vodou art has a single hallmark outside its ecumenical embrace, it is boldness.

Drums are boldly carved. Glittering flags call forth a jubilee spirit. Considering the grim environment surrounding this work, it amounts to a triumph of the celebratory spirit over a nasty reality. There is a recurrent format in which a doll has somehow been placed in a bottle, which sums up the enchanted quality of much of this work.

Vodou rituals are acted out in temples. One from downtown Port-au-Prince is re-created for the exhibition. It looks like a sad little storefront church brought to life with pretty little painted chairs, a wall mural of a black Madonna and a central ceremonial space, the peristyle.

Such places are as much community centers as holy precincts because vodou pervades Haitian life right into the bedroom.

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Bedroom altars are elaborate collections of things thought to please the spirits--jewelry, mirrors, booze and perfume bottles, cigarettes, plaster statues and toys. The altars are so impacted they seem all alike at a glance.

But a moment’s contemplation sees the emergence of distinct expressive vectors. A Bizango altar intends intimidation to inspire respect, so there is much in red and black. A fiery horseman flies overhead while Darth Vader stands ominously below. The objects in a Rada altar join to evoke a spirit that is good-natured, sweet and cool.

Vodou art reveals a world where art, life and religion make a seamless and encompassing whole.

This landmark show was the brainchild of Fowler deputy director Doran H. Ross and UCLA professor Donald J. Cosentino who acted as curator along with Marilyn Houlberg.

* “Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou” at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Westwood, through June 16. Closed Mondays. Information: (310) 825-4361.