LEAH GORDON
(b.1959, Ellesmere Port)
'Our Lady of Penmarch'
fibre-based photograph mounted on aluminium
16 x 20 ins, 1998/2009. Ed 10
Leah Gordon's debut solo exhibition at Riflemaker will take place in Autumn 2010
(b.1959, Ellesmere Port)
'Our Lady of Penmarch'
fibre-based photograph mounted on aluminium
16 x 20 ins, 1998/2009. Ed 10
Leah Gordon's debut solo exhibition at Riflemaker will take place in Autumn 2010
selected exhibitions:
ACBEU, San Salvador, Brazil 2010
Kanaval, Photofusion, London 2009
Pluri'elles, Paris 2009
Voo-doo, Riflemaker, London 2009
Parc de la Vilette, Paris 2009
Kanaval, Institut Français, Port au Prince, Haiti 2008
Kanaval, Alliance Française, Jacmel, Haiti 2008
Brunei Gallery, SOAS London 2004
National Portrait Gallery, London Sept 1996
ACBEU, San Salvador, Brazil 2010
Kanaval, Photofusion, London 2009
Pluri'elles, Paris 2009
Voo-doo, Riflemaker, London 2009
Parc de la Vilette, Paris 2009
Kanaval, Institut Français, Port au Prince, Haiti 2008
Kanaval, Alliance Française, Jacmel, Haiti 2008
Brunei Gallery, SOAS London 2004
National Portrait Gallery, London Sept 1996
Leah Gordon is a photographer and film-maker who first visited Haiti in 1991.
She photographed the Amnesty International Report on Haiti in 1994 and is author of ‘The Book of Vodou' - Vodou & Art (Quarto 2000).
Currently at work on a documentary about Haiti's Grand Rue sculptors, her work has featured in numerous exhibitions including the National Portrait Gallery, London.
"Much is written about the possession by the spirits in Vodou, and often the 'sacrifice' is overlooked.
I once stood close to a bull sacrificed for Ogou in Haiti. At the point of death I felt a charge pass through me making me both helpless and also energised.
In South Africa, after hours of tracking their prey on foot, bushmen kill the worn out beast only as it submits to their stamina.
After the killing, the hunter wipes the froth and saliva from the mouth of the prey onto his mouth. This is an act of spirit connection, transference and respect.
In Vodou, Sacrifice is the metaphorical vestige of this practice within agrarian society. Artists could consider sacrifice as a component of their practice.
What is it we doggedly track down, wear out, identify with, transform and annihilate in order to create?
Possession is the performative stage of Vodou art. I've seen incredible possession and very bad possession, from intense and ecstatic to hammy and derivative.
There is a poetic transgression at work somewhere between theatre and trance, which is inherent in Vodou ritual.
But all possession, good or bad, has the capacity to command me. I collude with the drama wholeheartedly as it forbids challenge.
Art has become the material expression of the Vodou faith.
All forms of the plastic arts have their roots in the Vodou temples.
I am working currently with a group of artists, the Sculptors of Grand Rue, from a downtown ghetto in Port au Prince.
They've transformed their labyrinthine backstreet neighbourhood into a living installation.
Their powerful sculptural collages of engine manifolds, TV sets, wheel hubcaps, skulls and discarded lumber have transformed the detritus of a failing economy into radical, morbid sculptures, mainly inspired by the Vodou spirit of the cemetery, Gede, the guardian of the dead and the master of the phallus.
Their, often monumental works, reference their shared African cultural heritage, Vodou practice and a dystopian sci-fi view of the future.
Again there is death, transformation and rebirth.' Leah Gordon 2008
She photographed the Amnesty International Report on Haiti in 1994 and is author of ‘The Book of Vodou' - Vodou & Art (Quarto 2000).
Currently at work on a documentary about Haiti's Grand Rue sculptors, her work has featured in numerous exhibitions including the National Portrait Gallery, London.
"Much is written about the possession by the spirits in Vodou, and often the 'sacrifice' is overlooked.
I once stood close to a bull sacrificed for Ogou in Haiti. At the point of death I felt a charge pass through me making me both helpless and also energised.
In South Africa, after hours of tracking their prey on foot, bushmen kill the worn out beast only as it submits to their stamina.
After the killing, the hunter wipes the froth and saliva from the mouth of the prey onto his mouth. This is an act of spirit connection, transference and respect.
In Vodou, Sacrifice is the metaphorical vestige of this practice within agrarian society. Artists could consider sacrifice as a component of their practice.
What is it we doggedly track down, wear out, identify with, transform and annihilate in order to create?
Possession is the performative stage of Vodou art. I've seen incredible possession and very bad possession, from intense and ecstatic to hammy and derivative.
There is a poetic transgression at work somewhere between theatre and trance, which is inherent in Vodou ritual.
But all possession, good or bad, has the capacity to command me. I collude with the drama wholeheartedly as it forbids challenge.
Art has become the material expression of the Vodou faith.
All forms of the plastic arts have their roots in the Vodou temples.
I am working currently with a group of artists, the Sculptors of Grand Rue, from a downtown ghetto in Port au Prince.
They've transformed their labyrinthine backstreet neighbourhood into a living installation.
Their powerful sculptural collages of engine manifolds, TV sets, wheel hubcaps, skulls and discarded lumber have transformed the detritus of a failing economy into radical, morbid sculptures, mainly inspired by the Vodou spirit of the cemetery, Gede, the guardian of the dead and the master of the phallus.
Their, often monumental works, reference their shared African cultural heritage, Vodou practice and a dystopian sci-fi view of the future.
Again there is death, transformation and rebirth.' Leah Gordon 2008
