One Resurrection After Another

Echoes and Collisions
Widener Art Gallery
Austin Arts Center
Trinity College
March 10, 2025

The Widener Art Gallery at Trinity College has a unique exhibition on display. Called Echoes and Collisions, the exhibit pairs the art of F. Patrick Henry, an artist of Haitian origin, with the Edith A. Graham Collection of Haitian Art, which was donated to the school in 2008. The purpose is to put the artworks ​“in conversation” with each other; it served to give me a new look at a place I know very little about.

I’m not Haitian, but the nation of Haiti has always held a place in my imagination. It’s the nation with the largest Black population in the Western Hemisphere, and the only one to throw off slavery through revolution. There’s an old joke in which a man asks another man how he knew he was Haitian, only for it to be revealed that the original man’s name is Toussaint Toussaint. But the name Toussaint carries weight across the African diaspora, as a constant reminder that we have always been powerful. 

The painting Walls of Jericho by Jean-Baptiste Bottex is how I imagine the dismantling of the slave state in Haiti must have gone. There were of course soldiers and militia, led by Toussaint and others, but the work of ending slavery and French rule in Haiti was taken up by regular people too who yearned for their freedom. 

That tradition of bravery continues through to today, and is represented in the choice to rest Bottex’s painting on Henry’s piece, Resurrection Highway. The ​“moto,” as it’s called in Haiti, is one of the key modes of transportation in the modern country. Since the revolution, Haiti has been forced to endure devastating earthquakes, political instability, crippling debt payments and the on-again, off-again interference of the United States under the Monroe Doctrine. Yet still its people drive forward, one resurrection after another.

Beyond reminding us of our strength, Haiti reminds us of our beauty. The phrase ​“Black is beautiful” has become a mantra due to the fact that we live in a society that is constantly telling us how ugly our skin, features and hair are. That’s not an exaggeration; I’ve heard with my own ears multiple Black children say how they wished they were White, in our allegedly post-racial society.

So yes, we do need to be reminded of how beautiful and radiant we are, and Henry’s piece The Igneous Element is an incredible way to do so. In the center is an unmistakably Black woman with full lips and braided hair. Emanating from her face are so many beams of light, radiating warmth to everything around it. Henry places Blackness at the center of the universe, a pre-Copernicus nod to the centrality of the African diaspora in everything that exists today.

Speaking of the universe, it may not encompass all of existence, but Untitled (Noah’s Ark) by Amui is an interesting compliment to the themes elsewhere in the Echoes and Collisions exhibit. First of all, the man in the painting, presumably Noah, is not Black. Given the overall pro-Black tone of this review, it might surprise you to learn that I’m not really into the whole ​“X figure in the Bible was actually Black,” because 1) who cares? and 2) the Bible does not take place in a majority Black part of the world. 

But what it does show in line with the rest of the exhibit is what we often don’t consider. The tale of the Ark focuses on Noah’s family, the destruction of humanity and the collection of every animal on earth, two by two. Amui’s work shows us those who were unaffected by the deluge; the fish, the plankton, the algae, the crabs, all those who endured 40 days and nights of rain without so much as batting an eye. And then there are the two-by-twos we don’t think about: crickets and bees and butterflies and the rest. Amui shows us a forgotten world among the familiar, as the familiarity of Haiti often smothers its rich history.

I enjoyed seeing both Henry’s work and the work of other Haitian artists shown together, and especially having the Haiti of my imagination updated and made more real.

NEXT
Echoes and Collisions continues at the Widener Gallery through April 30.

Jamil finally learns how to read a movie schedule and goes to see Mickey 17.