The Spirit of Haiti by Shneider Léon Hilaire

Just being alive in Haiti puts one in the centre of a red-hot flashpoint of survival. Haitian artist Shneider Léon Hilaire (born 1990) depicts this extreme state of his people, their resourcefulness and resilience, in his mysterious surreal paintings. The art depicts rituals from Vodou, a syncretistic 18th-century religion blending West African spiritual traditions and Catholicism. It is a holistic, community-focused belief system centering on honouring ancestors, healing, and communicating with spirits known as lwa to serve as intermediaries with a supreme creator, Bondye. In the middle of natural disasters, political upheavals and economic struggles, this tradition becomes an anchor.

In the Vodou world of Hilaire’s paintings, in the deliberate and careful restraint of their nighttime colours and implied animism, there is always this hope that ceremony, spiritual inheritance, mystical knowledge and love will heal the heartbreak of a prosecuted culture, exhausted yet vital despite earthquakes, storms and the lack of promised help from world powers. Last year, Cavin-Morris Gallery in NYC exhibited Hilaire’s work in the exhibition “The Real Surreal: Part I”. These paintings, speaking of turmoil and suffering, have a luminous quality. They look towards the future with an assurance that entities from the invisible world watch over and protect the living in the present—and will carry them through.

Check out a few paintings…

Links: Instagram (www.instagram.com/shneider_h/)

Night Lights for Erzulie Freda (Erzulie Freda is the spirit representing love, beauty, jewellery, luxury, and dancing) © Shneider Léon Hilaire
Baron’s Cemetery – The Waters Are Rising (the Baron is spirit of the dead, guardian of cemeteries and the boundary between life and death) © Shneider Léon Hilaire
Initiation by Fire (Hounsi Kanzo) (Hounsi Kanzo is a member of a Vodou temple who has undergone trial by fire) © Shneider Léon Hilaire
Ceremony for Aida Wédo (Aida Wédo is the spirit of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth, thunder and snakes) © Shneider Léon Hilaire
Greetings to Grand Ibolélé (Grand Ibolélé is a spirit representing tradition and wisdom) © Shneider Léon Hilaire
Portrait of a Houngan (Houngan is a male priest who leads rituals, acts as a community healer, and serves the spirits) © Shneider Léon Hilaire

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Published by Tulika Bahadur

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India-born, London-educated, business base in Sydney, global network. Always happy to travel. Say hello if you are a reader! Send all commercial enquiries regarding introduction to the art world, content creation, curatorship, educational/speaking engagements, art/artist/cultural involvement for your business/organisation, art buying/commissioning, building a collection, brand collaborations with artists, entrepreneurship in art and culture, using art and beauty for well-being, and cultural experiences, events and tours to tulika@onartandaesthetics.com (DON'T FORGET TO CC: tulikabahadur@gmail.com). Please introduce yourself before forwarding press releases and newsletters. I will especially remember you! IG: @tulikabahadur (personal), @connoisseurscircle (social club) & @theologyaestheticsart (Christian page).