Haitian

Murat Brierre

Haiti 1938-1988
L'Araignée (The Spider) 73.0007

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Brièrre studied painting and drawing with DeWitt Peters at Le Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince but soon became interested in sculpture. As Georges Liautaud's first student, Brièrre quickly displayed his range of subject matter and the sophisticated nature of his design, often linking groups of figures together to tell a story. Like Liautaud, Brièrre's basic tool is the forge, where he cuts and works old oil drums or whatever metal is available. One of the Gede or spirits of the dead is a spider, Gede Nibo. A spider's body is symbolic of the many converging into one and so it is a fitting symbol of the dependency of the living on the dead. Each of us is a product of our ancestors' development and genetics--vodou teaches this also and adds that any living person is the sum of countless family members who have gone before. All of the legs of Brièrre's spider end in ancestral masks. Each mask or foot anchors the creature to the earth and creates a point of contact with Ginen, or Mother Africa. These "paths" create conduits for the passage of ancestral warnings, wisdom and energy. In the womb of the spider the next generation takes form.

 

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