As the season shifts and the weather warms, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum unveiled its newest exhibition, “Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom” by Fabiola Jean-Louis Feb. 27. Running through May 25, the exhibition includes over 50 pieces, spanning the museum’s three rotating exhibition spaces.
To celebrate the opening, the museum hosted a discussion held by Jean-Louis Feb. 27. The central theme of the discussion was driven by the question: What lies at the center of Black freedom?
Born in Haiti, Jean-Louis explores Haitian spiritual syncretism and tradition in her works. Haitian spirituality evolved into a pluralistic and dynamic form of resistance for Black Haitians.
Haitian Vodou encompasses a wide range of spiritual traditions that originated from African practices brought to the island during the period of colonialism and slavery. During the discussion, Jean-Louis described the function of Vodou to create unity while forced behind a mask of Catholic symbolism.
The exhibition featured Jean-Louis’s dualistic application of papier-mâché, which ranged from intricately decorated sculptures adorned with shells to paintings that offered allusions to the past and future of Haiti. For Jean-Louis, the paper’s universal utility and historical significance provide an opportunity to redefine her identity.
“It’s so emotional; I’m just completely immersed in the beauty of her art and how intricate it is,” said visitor Riya MacKenzie, a local photographer. “I feel very drawn to the art, the water and the colors of the seashore but also to how she’s lending her spirituality to her art.”
Jean-Louis sources raw materials from her neighborhood of Little Haiti in New York City, creating paper pulp to sculpt and shape permanence from what are otherwise transitory materials, often resembling natural surfaces such as gold, metal and rock. She also incorporates into the works ornate shells, sea glass and reflective surfaces — elements that hold sacred significance in Vodou.
Multimodality in Jean-Louis’ work opens up the generative potential of art to “bridge the body and spirit,” creating new stories and spaces for reflection, she said during the discussion. Her papier-mâché constructions merge reverence and reflection, operating within and across nonlinear understandings of the world and beyond.
“It feels surreal to see Vodou depicted in such a public way that is also reverential,” said Nathanial Gabriel, a visitor and local artist. “I’m Haitian, and my family also practices Vodou, so this is what I’ve grown up with and seen.”
Gabriel has previously experienced Jean-Louis’ “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 2021. Jean-Louis became the first Haitian woman to have a solo exhibition at the museum.
For Gabriel, something resonant within Jean-Louis’ works and during the discussion was her understanding of human spirituality. “The spirit — our spirit — wants to participate in the human experience,” he said. Jean-Louis describes the human spirit as essential in merging past and future, existing within a vast cosmographic plane of existence.
“It’s like coming home, like she said,” Gabriel said. During the discussion, Jean-Louis invited the African and Haitian diaspora to join body and spirit in a shared reconnection.
At the heart of the exhibition stood “Lwa,” a gilded papier-mâché and mixed-media effigy surrounded by candles. The figure presented a sword inscribed with the phrase “PRAN TET,” or “take heads,” a rallying cry from the Haitian Revolution.
“Especially during times like these, when we’re facing a lot of political heaviness, Haitian people have a lot that people can learn from,” Gabriel said.
For visitor and artist Alana Borges Gordon, Jean-Louis’ works “bring something that is super necessary to the world and the community.” Jean-Louis’ art is a dedication to ancestors and a future call to action, each piece carefully crafted to reflect personal significance.
“She’s saying the quiet part out loud and the loud part even louder,” Borges Gordon said. “Everything was hitting, resonating. … I felt her words deeply in my spirit and in my soul.”
The Gardner Museum will host a talk by Jean-Louis and Cornell University professor Rebeca Hey-Colón on Black spirituality March 20. Tickets for the event are available online.
