Art, says filmmaker Jonathan Demme, is one of the few courses of action people who are otherwise powerless still have at their command. In Haiti, a country that has 60 percent unemployment and staggering illiteracy rates, the culture is infused with numerous untrained and intuitive artists. “Everybody goes out very early and seeks a way of doing something productive for money, and that inevitably makes people turn to something artistic,” says Demme.
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Demme’s interest in Haitian art has informed his work as a director of feature films (most obviously in the mise-en-scenes and color schemes of Something Wild and Married to the Mob), and in 1987 he codirected the documentary Haiti: Dreams of Democracy. He’s also amassed a large collection of Haitian artworks, many of which are included in “The Art of Haiti,” an exhibit he curated for World Tattoo Gallery. The exhibit is one of two Haitian art shows now on view, the other being paintings and sculptures from the collection of Chicagoan Donald Garrabant at the Hyde Park Art Center.
Demme grew up in Florida in the 60s and says he wasn’t even aware of the limited Haitian presence there. He got his indoctrination visiting the Haitian Corner, a coffee shop on New York’s Upper West Side. “I lived just a couple of blocks from the place, and it became a hangout for very politically active exiled Haitians, ” he says. “I went there and started seeing the paintings, and started listening to these guys and got more and more interested. There’s a strong solidarity with Haitians who live in America with the country of Haiti. Though it’s gone unreported in the media, there are 300 people holding vigils outside the United Nations every night protesting the Haitian military.”
“Haitian Art: Selections From a Chicago Collection” is at the Hyde Park Art Center (1701 E. 53rd St.) through November 30. Gallery hours are 10 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday, and admission is free. Call 324-5520.
