Ayida is a new group exhibition of five artists celebrating the Caribbean and its diaspora. Through a combination of new and existing works, the contributors pay attention to the material, spiritual, and intellectual cultures of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, among other sites.
The show’s main inspiration is the Haitian poet Assotto Saint (1957–1994), an important figure in the 1980s Black and gay writers movement in New York. Saint’s own complex relationship with Haitian Vodou (a topic frequently censored in Western societies) forms the starting point for Ayida’s focus on movement-based religious practice and the syncretism between different religions and cultures—themes the artists explore through archives, photography, installation, sculpture, painting, and printmaking. Ayida is curated by guest curator Serubiri Moses and features works by Lizania Cruz, Oletha DeVane, Thomas Allen Harris, mujero, and Didier William.
