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WORLD NEWSTuesday 12 April 2016
Haiti:
Artists forge international reputation with art made of junk
DAVID McFADDEN art connoisseurs and aca- dy Onassis and filmmaker materials used and offering bones were scattered by
Associated Press demics. Jonathan Demme sought stunning new meanings for grave robbers.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Over the last decade, out self-taught painters objects found in everyday Many of their artworks are
— Amid a maze of car re- the work of Atis Rezistans colorfully evoking the ev- life,” said Marcus Rediker, a a nod to Baron Samedi, the
pair shops in Haiti’s gritty has been exhibited in cit- eryday lives of Haitians collector of Haitian art and Vodou god of the dead,
capital, Andre Eugene ies such as Paris, London, or depicting dreamlike a distinguished professor of and his rambunctious off-
pitches a shredded tire and Los Angeles. There scenes. And even though Atlantic history at the Uni- spring, Gede. Others offer
he found atop a tower- a kaleidoscope of jarring
ing sculpture he built out Sculptor Jean Robert Palanquet carves on a piece of wood in an open-air museum and art work- images out of a Mad Max
of rusty engine parts, bed shop off a trash-strewn street cutting through some of the poorest neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, movie: sculptures of faces
springs and other cast-off Haiti. Palanquet is a member of a collective of Haitian artists called Atis Rezistans who have be- with spikes; masked fig-
junk. come celebrated in the international art world by creating sculptures out of scrapped car parts, ures resembling shrouded
“This is what I do: I work with old wood, cast-off toys and even human skulls found scattered outside crumbling mausoleums. corpses; broken baby dolls
the garbage of the world,” fused with computer moth-
says Eugene, assessing the (AP Photo/David McFadden) erboards.
largest sculpture displayed But it’s not all darkness.
at the entrance of his stu- are sculptures included in found-object creations versity of Pittsburgh. There’s plenty of evidence
dio and open-air museum the permanent collections have been part of the poor The materials that form the of playfulness and irrever-
off a crumbling street cut- of museums, including the country’s art for decades, sharp-edged sculptures ent theatricality, such as a
ting through some of Port- Frost Art Museum in Miami. experts say there has been include automotive frag- skull-topped figure with a
au-Prince’s poorest neigh- Haitian art has long had nothing like the in-your- ments, carved wood piec- stethoscope, snake sculp-
borhoods. a reputation for imagina- face works of Atis Rezistans. es, broken TVs, discarded tures with scales of inlaid
The Haitian sculptor is a tive richness, and wealthy “Atis Rezistans takes an old toys and even real human bottle caps and much
founding member of Atis international collectors in- practice in new directions, skulls collected at a ceme- frank sexual imagery.
Rezistans, a shifting collec- cluding Jacqueline Kenne- expanding the range of tery of mausoleums where Perhaps their most ac-
tive of artists who recycle claimed collaborative cre-
whatever useful scraps ation has been a mashup
they can find to give a of high art-meets-devel-
raw, physical shape to the oping world called the
spiritual world of Voodoo, “Ghetto Biennale.” Every
or Vodou as the religion two years, international art-
is known by Haitians, and ists come to the Grand Rue
weigh in on the country’s neighborhood in a kind of
chronic political and eco- cross-cultural festival that
nomic troubles. leaves the door open for
While Haiti’s established just about anything.
galleries were slow to warm The Ghetto Biennale takes
to the scrap sculptors of a form developed for Euro-
the capital’s impoverished pean art fairs and radically
Grand Rue neighborhood, subverts it, according to
bustling with furniture- Anthony Bogues, a Brown
makers and other crafts- University professor who
men, the artisans working co-curated a 2011 exhibi-
with recycled materials tion of Haitian art at the
have been embraced by Providence, Rhode Island
a number of international school. q
Puerto Rico unveils new restructuring deal as cash dwindles
DANICA COTO exchange proposal would allow the government to with investors’ advisers in want to be part of (Puerto
allow creditors to recover keep providing essential late March.
Associated Press the full principal they services, pay back local David Tawil, co-founder Rico’s) future or whether
invested regardless of vendors and suppliers, and portfolio manager of
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) future economic growth boost liquidity and fund New York-based Maglan you want to go ahead and
rates. The plan also includes retirement systems, among Capital, said bondholders
— Puerto Rico on Monday a special clause for those other things. will likely not consider the cash out in your investment
who live in Puerto Rico and “The fact is that we will deal aggressive enough,
released a new proposal hold certain bonds. Officials only be able to address but said it was a smart move immediately.”A group of
said that group could these issues by working by government officials
to restructure part of its $70 receive up to $8 billion of together,” said Secretary of amid uncertainty of how investors and insurance
local holder base bonds State Victor Suarez. courts and U.S. Congress
billion debt to buy time to that repays the full principal Investors’ groups have will respond to the island’s company Assured
they originally invested at proposed tougher terms. economic crisis.
implement a fiscal growth a 2 percent interest rate. They did not return a “This is a good-faith effort Guaranty, which together
Government officials said message for comment on in the sense that it’s
plan as multimillion-dollar Puerto Rico could cut $12 the new plan, which could holistic,” he said in a phone hold nearly $6.5 billion
billion to $16 billion from its mean a loss for some. interview. “It provides for
payments loom for a U.S. debt load under the new Puerto Rican officials said varying types of recovery worth of general obligation
deal. They said this would they discussed the plan depending on whether you
territory facing dwindling bonds, have offered to
cash reserves. defer repayment of nearly
Government officials $2 billion in principal for
propose to exchange the next five years to help
$49 billion of debt into the island avoid a default
up to $28 billion of base in July. The investors also
bonds and nearly $2 billion offered $750 million in
of tax-exempt capital liquidity through another
appreciation bonds. general obligation bond
Officials said the voluntary sale.q
