‘I lie down with the mermaid’: reflecting on Caribbean artists and the nature of water

• In Event: Aesthetics and waterways

Description for Program

Lasyrenn, Labelenn,
My hat falls into the sea.
I caress the mermaid,
My hat falls into the sea.
I lie down with the mermaid,
My hat falls into the sea

This poem, recited by Alourdes Marquax and recorded by Karen McCarthy Brown in Mama Lola, A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, highlights the seduction and dangers of a relationship with the lwa la Sirène, whose domain is water. Water, both its enticement and threat, is not a new dilemma for cultures from the Caribbean, who have had to navigate it as part of their past and continue to as part of their future. Like water, la Sirène is also dangerous and enticing because of her beauty, her sexuality, and even her race. Water and female spirit share multifaceted narratives that simultaneously provide comfort and security but can also threaten and alienate. This paper explores these complexities in the works of several Caribbean artists, including Belkis Ayón, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Ruddy Roye. For these artists water is a component of a sacred landscape that shapes identity and provides place yet can also separate and endanger. While these artists are not Vodou artists, I will use Vodou, and other Afro-Caribbean philosophies to both frame and connect shared visual expression and ideologies.

Author

• Elizabeth Moran, William & Mary