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T H E
H A I T I A N S P I R I T
Papier Maché Carnival Masks from Jacmel |
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Papier Maché artist Tidier Levoyant from Jacmel, Haiti (with parrot mask #hmsk-09), at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC, July, 2004 (photo by AH Fisher).
Papier Maché devil mask from Jacmel, Haiti ( devil mask #hmsk-07, below), at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC, July, 2004 (photo by AH Fisher).
Papier Maché monster mask (photo by AH Fisher)..
Papier Maché monster mask (photo by AH Fisher).
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Papier Maché artist Tidier Levoyant from Jacmel, Haiti molds papier maché over a clay mold (photo by AH Fisher).
Papier Maché mask of Haitian founding father Alexandre Petion (photo by AH Fisher).
Papier Maché monster mask (photo by AH Fisher)..
Papier Maché artist Didier Civil in Santa Fe, NM, 2007 (photo by AH Fisher).
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The official parade starts shortly after noon with a menagerie of animals, giant papier-maché masks topping multi-colored costumes representing each species in vibrant detail: lions, alligators, zebras, apes, giraffes, frogs, crocodiles, flamingos, parrots, horses, rhinoceroses, elephants, snakes, dragons, rabbits, even yellow-eyed mice that look like laboratory mutants....
Jacmel's carnival is best known for these papier maché masks. Whether they are carved to look like animals, world figures or the local politician of the day, they are what people remember most from the parade. Jacmelians like to boast that these masks would stand out in any carnival, even in the richest countries in the world. And they are right. Both playful and ceremonial, these masks seemed to have jumped out of Haitian paintings, which often depict an older, wilder Haiti, with lush forests and jungles sheltering indigenous animals as well as species that have never been seen on the island, all of it forming a living fable, a chimerical Noah's Ark, a symbolic journey between the present and a very distant past.
Edwidge Danticat - After the Dance: A Walk through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti 2002
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Cow Mask (#hmsk-04)
Denejour Frantz - Groupe Flambeau (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(18" h. x 23" w. w. x 21" d.)
c. 2004
$290 |
Devil Mask (#hmsk-07)
Anonymous artist (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(20" h. x 22 1/2" w. x 16" d.)
c. 2004
$360 |
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Tiger Mask (#hmsk-12)
Didier Civile (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(12 1/2" h. x 11 1/2" w. x 8" d.)
c.2007
$88 |
White Tiger Mask (#hmsk-13)
Didier Civile (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(9" h. x 9 1/2" w. x 8" d.)
c.2007
$78
SOLD 6/09 |
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Leopard Mask (#hmsk-15)
Didier Civile (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(12 1/2" h. x 10 1/2" w. x 6 1/2" d.)
c.2007
$88
SOLD 6/09 |
Tiger Mask (#hmsk-16)
Didier Civile (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(11" h. x 9 1/2" w. x 9 1/2" d.)
c.2007
$88 |
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Girl with Braids Mask (#hmsk-17)
Didier Civile (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(12 1/4" h. x 10 1/2" w. x 6" d.)
c.2007
$128 |
Figivenn's Mask (#hmsk-18)
Didier Civile (Jacmel, Haiti)
Papier Maché
(16 1/2" h. x 17" w. x 7 1/2" d.)
c.2007
$128 |
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All photographs and text Copyright Indigo Arts Gallery, LLC., 1998-2009. Use without permission prohibited.
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