Kathia St.Hilaire
Miami, FL
September 1-30, 2020
ARTIST STATEMENT
“All my life I have lived in a predominantly Caribbean and African American area in South Florida. My experiences growing up with tension between African American and Caribbean subcultures have influenced me to see how my history exists within their diaspora. My work is driven by both my reality and my connection to Haitian diaspora. I recognize both my ties and disconnection from my family’s ancestral past by considering the possibilities of urban space, cultural identification, innate and intuitive beliefs, as well as a conscious seeking of links that reveal continuities hidden by the mainstream. My work affirms and memorializes controversial, historic, and political issues that deal with both marginalized and privileged communities of neo-diaspora.
My work stems from an African religion called Vodun which was the source of psychological liberation, that enabled the Haitian Revolution. Vodun has been widely misunderstood to the world, it has been portrayed as primitive, while ignoring its rich history and complexity. Wanting to tell my own narrative of the consumption of beauty products and natural resources and how it relates to the Haitian diaspora led me to experiment in printmaking.
Vodun flags are used to tell Haitian history and honor the anscental spirits. These flags are made of shiny silk fabrics to which have been sewn a brilliant mosaic of sequins and beads. Wanting to imitate these flags through a printmaking-painting language, I experimented in a technique called reduction relief printing. I start off by creating a large drawing and then transferring it on to a large sheet of linoleum. After, I carve out small sections of the linoleum and print on a variety of surfaces like paper, beauty products, industrial metal, fabric or tires. For each carved layer, I think about the viscosity of printmaking ink that is rollered on to the linoleum. Including the pressure that is then applied on linoleum and the objects I chose to print on. These steps are repeated multiple times until the whole linoleum is carved away. This process creates a shiny-textured dense surface for me to sew, collage and weave into with other materials important from my culture. The idea that Vodun and Haitian history lives around us ,regardless if it being acknowledged or not, plays an important role in how persevere and represent it through printmaking and popular commodity in black culture.”
ARTIST LINKS
Website: https://cargocollective.com/kathiasthilaire
Instagram: @kathiast.hilaire