Hearts on Fire!
A Valentine's month selection of the iconography of the heart, from Haiti, Mexico and Peru. In Haiti the heart is the symbol or vévé of the loas (spirits) Erzulie Freda and Erzulie Dantor and the various other manifestations of the Virgin Mary. Hearts on Fire features beaded and sequinned drapo Vodou from Haitian Vodou flag artists, including Roudy Azor, Jean-Baptiste Jean Joseph, the late Sylva Joseph, Yves Telemak and Georges Valris, as well as Haitian sculpture from recycled oil-drums, papier maché and stone.
Mexican artists such as Oaxaca's Fernando Olivera employ the image of the Corazon Sagrada Sacred Heart to make a political statement, commemorating the sorrow of those left behind by Latin America's fallen, imprisoned and desaparecidos, the disapeared.
Peru's premier retablista Claudio Jimenez Quispé and his brother Mabilon use the sacred heart imagery to make a lighter point. His Casa de Corazones heart workshop retablos show Peruvian artisans not only fashioning new hearts, with romantic slogans such as "Amor eterno" and "Te amo como a nadie en el mundo", but carefully sewing together broken hearts as well.
