For Haitian-American artist Stephen Arboite, the manchèt carries an energetic charge as a tool used to cultivate the land, and as a weapon of resistance during the Haitian Revolution.
He explains, “It exists in a constant duality, between cultivation and destruction, survival and revolt, labor and freedom. In my practice, the manchèt is a metaphor for memory—cutting, clearing, and reshaping the terrain of the past in order to make sense of the present.”
On June 20, Arboite unveiled his community commission at our Season Eight finale at the Little River Cultural Garden in Miami. Titled “In the Embrace of Memory,” the manchèt series draws on Haitian cosmology and Diasporic memory, rendered through layered imagery, oxidized surfaces, and material processes developed by the artist. Each piece is a singular work and part of a larger whole.
”Burned holes puncture heavily collaged surfaces, acting as portals that introduce an element of destruction which paradoxically leads to creation. These openings reveal glimpses of the layers hidden beneath the surface, creating small windows into the process and anatomy of the work. Rather than functioning solely as acts of excavation, these passages—the punctures, cuts, collage—invite viewers to move between visibility and imagination, suggesting that memory and history are never singular or fixed, but constantly shifting through time and perception.”
As Season Eight closes, and we look to what’s next for Commissioner, we’re channeling all that’s generative and possible when we clear the path for artists and the people who support them.
Here’s a preview of the magic we made together.
Photography is by Chantal Lawrie.
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