Bwapin Rasanblaj

Bwapin Rasanblaj:A Curated Conversation Lyndon K. Gill (bio) and Gina Athena Ulysse (bio) artist's statement (gina athena ulysse) "[A]s an artist and educator who has been teaching in universities for over twenty-one years, the work I do is a direct response to the calls I receive, whenever they make themselves known . . . In response to the muses, I seek beauty and grace with humility, however haunting or ephemeral, to confront the visceral too often absent in structural analyses. . . . I came to both my performance and visual art practice as a Black feminist ethnographer who pushes the boundaries and challenges the tension between humanities and social science that undergirds anthropology's schizophrenic standing as a discipline because no subject lives life along disciplinary lines . . . The aesthetics in my feminist praxis stem from an organic approach to Rasanblaj (a Haitian Kreyòl term which can be translated as an assembly, compilation, enlisting and regrouping . . . a gathering of ideas, things, people, and spirits) that is fueled by ancestral, liberatory, and love imperatives. . . ."1 ________ An Equitable Human Assertion, a multimedia installation performance project that was presented at the Biennale of Sydney in 2020, . . . [w]as a form of Rasanblaj. [T]his site-specific work gathered together materials [End Page 328] Click for larger view View full resolution kwi series Calabashes. Property of artist. [End Page 329] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 330] Click for larger view View full resolution kwi series Calabashes. Property of artist. [End Page 331] Click for larger view View full resolution kwi series Calabashes, Tiger Cowries. Property of artist. Detail, opposite. [End Page 332] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 333] Click for larger view View full resolution bwapin series Calabash, pine wood, cotton. Property of artist. [End Page 334] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 335] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 336] Click for larger view View full resolution bwapin series Calabash, pine wood, cotton. Property of artist. Detail, opposite. [End Page 337] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 338] Click for larger view View full resolution "an equitable human assertion" Calabashes, cowries, resin, ashes, and leaves from smoking ceremony. Biennale of Sydney, 2020, Cockatoo Island, Sydney, Australia. Property of artist. Details, following spread. [End Page 339] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 340] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 341] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 342] Click for larger view View full resolution "an equitable human assertion" Calabashes, cowries, glass beads, resin, ashes, and leaves from smoking ceremony. Biennale of Sydney, 2020, Cockatoo Island, Sydney, Australia. Property of artist. [End Page 343] Click for larger view View full resolution No Title. Property of artist. [End Page 344] from around the world, including Australia, which are objects that have agency, as well as multiple functions and significations, sometimes helping to draw together shared histories. Kwi—shells made from the kalbas or calabash tree (Lagenaria siceraria and Crescentia Cujete) are used as containers for eating and storage, carvings, musical instruments, and as religious objects. Here, they are the simple, sacred, and profane holders of Rasanblaj and become living things, creating possibilities for new encounters. ________ the conversation In the following curated conversation with fellow Caribbeanist artist-anthropologist Lyndon K. Gill, we consider what to make of the work and objects gracing the cover of this issue and those accompanying this text. Our conversation explores the profound relationship between artist and medium through the primary material—the calabash as a cornerstone of Black diaspora expressive and material cultures. Ruminating over topics such as ancestral memory, healing narratives and the longing for transnational dialogues as we reconsider Haiti as an Afropresentist story . . . a parable of another kind foretelling Black feminist futures. gill: Honor and respect to your ancestors and you for the work you do and share. I am so grateful for your example of freedom made manifest, and for your trust in inviting me into this conversation. My first question is about medium: the Kwi and Bwapin, the calabash bowls and fabric-wrapped pine kindling respectively. You insist the Kwi

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