asakiyume | Entries tagged with firelei báez

The sunken walls of Firelei Báez's vision of Sans-Souci Palace are decorated in blue to recall the indigo dye used in West Africa, and at the end of the installation, in a separate space, is a giant painting by Stephen Hamilton, celebrating the use of indigo in textiles:

Indigo exhibit-Painting by Stephen Hamilton

There are also samples of indigo-dyed fabrics created by Agnes Umeche, based on traditional designs.

And this informational plaque tells you a little more about Agnes Umeche and her work. (To read the text you'll have to click through and embiggen.)

Interestingly the indigo used in West Africa (Lonchocarpus cyanescens ) is different from the indigo used in Japan (Persicaria tinctoria), and both of those are different from woad (Isatis tinctoria) which also produces a blue dye. (Thanks goes out to the ninja girl for conveying that fact to me--I wouldn't have known!)

Here's some Japanese tie-dyeing--interesting to see the similarities with the West African tie-dyeing.

... and I happened to be using my copy of Lloyd Alexander's The Fortune Tellers as a hard surface on which to write a letter the other day, and I noticed that Trina Schart Hyman had made indigo borders around the edge of the cover design. NICE.

Current Music: The Battle of Land and Sea: Saltwater Queen

Today was the day we chose to go to the Firelei Báez exhibit! Nothing like a sunny, mild, first-of-August day to venture into Boston for the first time in, oh, a very long time.

Everything was enchanting and exciting, but I will try to space things out over posts so as not to be gushing in too many different directions at once. Today I will gush mainly about the exhibit. ... Actually, the gushing will mainly take the form of photos because, having read Siddhartha Mitter's New York Times article, I didn't then actually take the time to look at the accompanying information that went with the installation. I just whirled around going, "This is great, this is so great! Listen to that recording--they're talking in so many languages! Feel these barnacles! Look at these details!" and so on.

So it's meant to suggest Haiti's Sans-Souci palace, beneath the waves. Here is a photo of the actual Sans-Souci ruins (you can click through to see it larger):

And here is your first view into the installation. The waves above, the arches aslant, like you are swimming any which way, like they shifted in an earthquake before drowning.

( waves and barnacles )

At the front of the exhibit, Firelei Báez has a large mural of a mythical form superimposed over a map of the Atlantic and Caribbean, with textual comments on various waterways and features. I picked out a few:

( Boston Harbor, Connecticut River, Buzzard's Bay, Plymouth )

I'm going to save murals for another post, but I just have to include this one, which is on the Watershed building itself. Cut off by my inferior photo taking is a magnificent fish sculpture. Instead, willy-nilly, you get that bright white pickup truck.

Okay, I found a photo of the fish online. It's from a WBUR article from 2018--before the mural, clearly!

Current Music: Johnny Flynn: Barnacled Warship

Magically, I'm able to read this New York Times article by Siddhartha Mitter about this simply gorgeous exhibition by Firelei (beautiful name) Báez.

The tagline for the article says, "History meets flamboyant fantasy in the work of Firelei Báez, whose installation on the waterfront reasserts the importance of the Caribbean in world history."

It's at the Watershed, an exhibition hall in East Boston run by the Institute of Contemporary Art. I'd like to see it.

sovay, I thought of you instantly, and you too

minoanmiss

In a monumental sculpture, the artist Firelei Báez reimagines the archaeological ruins of the Sans-Souci Palace in Haiti. The architecture of lurching walls and archways surges from the “seafloor” of the ICA Watershed. Firelei Báez and James Cohan; Chuck Choi

In many of her paintings, for instance, she reproduces old maps that chart commerce and development from the perspective of the victors, then paints onto them flamboyant tropical colors and fantastical figures — notably ciguapas, forest creatures in Dominican folklore who roam with ambiguous intent.

Her sculptural installations, too, are rooted in history yet unfold as poetry ...

Past the mural rises the sculptural component: an architecture of tilted walls and archways, as if surging indigo-hued from the seafloor, studded with barnacles. A perforated canopy covers the space, like ocean’s surface, or the night sky.

The installation refers to Sans-Souci, a once-majestic palace in Haiti that marks a time of possibility but also sadness in Caribbean history. It was built in 1813 by Henri Christophe, the former slave who became a revolutionary general, then crowned himself king. His reign was turbulent, ending by suicide in 1820; the palace was devastated by an earthquake in 1842.

“The vision is that it’s emerging from the Atlantic,” Báez said of her construction. “It’s something that is breaking through this watershed and looking outside the marina at how things built up.”

"Báez building Sans Souci, a ruined palace emerging from the Atlantic. Photo: Amani Willett for The New York Times"

“Thinking of centuries of development that have happened here,” the artist said. “What was given and what was taken?” Photo: Amani Willett for The New York Times

More amazing photos and much more discussion at the link at the top of the post.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Asakiyume mita

Entries tagged with firelei báez

Indigo

Firelei Báez exhibit

Art exhibition in Boston: Firelei Báez

Profile

May 2025

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags