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HAITIAN PAPIER MACHE:
HANDICRAFT AND ART
Papier mâché carnival masks have long been a tradition in Haiti, particularly in Jacmel where the country's best carnival celebrations are held. Carnival is such a big tradition in Jacmel that the town actually has 2 Carnivals at least until the 2010 earthquake. The first is held a week before the official Mardi Gras season primarily for the local folks. The second is the official Mardi Gras marking the celebrations before the Christian Lenten season begins held for folks who come in from all over the country and even abroad. Both artisans and amateurs alike work all year long to produce larger than life-size papier mâché figures and masks.
The masks and other figures portray spirits from the Vodou religion and historical
 | | Devils during Carnival in Jacmel |
and contemporary political and cultural personalities. The highlight of carnival is, of course, the défilé or parade at night. However, during the day on many of the main streets the masks and other figures are used in street theater where players perform skits mocking contemporary politicians and playfully (and sometimes not so playfully) harass bystanders.
The making of papier mâché has expanded into both assembly-line and small cottage industries that produce all kinds of charming and fantastic animals, birds, tap-taps, fish and more primarily for export. But like the metal drum sculptors from Croix-des-Bouquets fine artists have also emerged who have raised the craft of papier mâché into fine folk art.
The first of the anonymous craftsmen to make a name for himself was Michel
 | | Tous les saints by Michel Sinvil from the collection of Kit Morice |
Sinvil. According to Seldon Rodman, Sinvil invented the technique of making a sand mold to hold the paper and glue while they dried in the sun. He then painted the dried piece with bright colors. Encouraged by Pierre Monosiet, director of the Centre d'Art and the Musée d'Art Haïtien, in the mid 1970's Sinvil began to make more complex, independent figures and scenes that combined both Catholic and Vodou traditions as well as secular subjects. Most of them were intended to be wall-mounted. Sinvil's technique was continued by his student Léonel Simonis. Didier Civil seems to be the current master of the tradition with some of his large pieces touring Europe as part of a group exhibit of Haitian art. Most molds are now made of clay and can be used over and over again, but the painting is very individualized.
Some of the most interesting carnival masks are those made by amateurs who
 | | Carnival mask on a woven basket lid by an unknown artist from the collection of Legrace Bensen |
use them during the Carnival celebrations. These masks take on a wonderful patina of wear. Traditionally, they are burned at the end of Carnival, but some of these "folk artists" can be persuaded to sell their creations. Many of the masks incorporate animal teeth
 | | Carnival revelers and their masks on a beach outside Jacmel |
and horns. The makers often use unusual "molds" on which to model their masks, like basket lids, for example.
Papier mâché is such a popular medium that it is used by artists who matured outside the mask-making tradition of Jacmel. San Soleil painter Levoy Exil creates mask-like spirit paintings and figures from corrugated
 | | Erzulie, a papier mâché spirit painting by Levoy Exil available from Ridge Art |
cardboard boxes. Ronald Mevs,
a very sophisticated artist and a master of many media, has even dabbled in papier mâché. His pieces are quite abstract and evocative referencing such disparate items as African shields, seedpods and magnified microscopic entities.
 | | Papier mâché sculpture by Ronald Mevs available from Ridge Art |
The medium is now being used by a small but very successful NGO in Jacmel called Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC) to provide education, training and community-building skills to needy children who had never been to school before and whose families could often not provide them with regular meals. Now they go to school, eat one meal a day at the ACFFC center and then attend art classes taught by local artists on how to make papier mâché and paint. ACFFC's mission statement is "any child who can make a papier-mâché bowl or bird is an artisan and will never starve or be lost to the streets."
 | | Making papier mâché at Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel |
Papier mâché is the ultimate recycled art form. It is economically made from old corrugated cardboard boxes, discarded paper bags and a flour and water paste. Old cement bags are very popular because they're very strong. It's also a very democratic art form. It crosses all class lines and is made by children and adults, amateurs and professionals. It is folk art and fine art.
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