Reception: November 2 @ 6pm – 9pm | RSVP
On View: November 3 – December 3, 2023
Location: MoCADA Culture Lab, 80 Hanson Place Brooklyn
Artist: Daveed Baptiste in collaboration with Masisi Collective
MOCADA curatorial team: Amy Andrieux, Zola-Jourdan Savage, Run P.
SUMMARY
Ti Maché is a fashion installation by New York Times celebrated photographer and fashion designer Daveed Baptiste refocusing Haitian-American life through the lens of ceremonious spaces.
In the artist’s marketplace, which features a new collection of garments designed by the artist, as well as short films and photography made in collaboration with Black Queer collective, MASISI, the migration conversation is unpacked. Like rice bags, jutes of coffee, sugar, or native soil enriched with blood sacrifice, Ti Maché examines the broken promise of opportunity and decades of ruthless ignorance and pillaging.
In spite of finding new roots elsewhere, one’s creative enterprise becomes the restorative, healing balm here, that returns the desecrated back to its rightful essence.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ti Maché is a multimedia experience that uses fashion design, film, and photography to celebrate Caribbean American heritage. The project consists of an 8-look menswear fashion collection that explores the legacy of streetwear by using denim as a leading material within the collection. This body of work is centered on the act of bleaching denim, both as an ode to American identity but also as a symbol of cultural erasure, to create a new cultural dialogue within each look. The collection was photographed in the heart of Little Haiti, Miami, Florida. A community that is home to the largest Haitian population in the United States and is also a community that is experiencing rapid gentrification and displacement.
SHORT FILM PREVIEW
THE ARTIST
Daveed Baptiste is an interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates fashion, textiles, and photography. He draws his inspiration from his migration from Port au-Prince, Haiti to Miami, Florida. Through collaborative projects like, Haiti To Hood and Between Lands, Baptiste investigates the notion of race, gender and class within the Haitian community and the larger Caribbean diaspora. He was awarded a year-long apprenticeship with Converse, where he co-designed the Black Joy Collection, and a new colorway/material design for the Energy basketball team. Baptiste earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in New York. His photographs have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and American Vogue. He has participated in exhibitions at New York University and the Aperture Foundation. Baptiste is currently an artist-in residence at the Silver Arts Project in lower Manhattan.
COLLABORATORS
Sample Makers:
BluePrint Production
YatuSabe
Bed On Water
Cesar Sosa
Blank Canvas Development
Graphic Designers: Kayla Van Der Byl, Jacob Folayan
Photo + Video Credits
Akia Dorsainvil, Producer/Casting Director
Givanete Castillo, Photo Assistant/Second Photographer
Jordan Blake, Cinematographer
Margo Hannah, Styling Consultant
Christina Lee, Makeup Artist
Models: Javon Wilson, Val Kammeron, Kenneth Mclemore
Acknowledgements:
Marie Agenor, Louis Baptiste, Naica Baptiste, Marie Agenor, Jacques Agbobly, Carlos Rivera, Matthew Josh, Pouleena Kumar
MUSEUM NOTES
CLICK the QR code to explore questions that provide a deeper exploration of the subject matter..
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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Made possible thanks to generous gifts from:
The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs on behalf of NYC City Council, New York State Council of the Arts and Governor Kathy Hochul, and The Ford Foundation
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MoCADA is committed to giving wings to artists by bringing dynamic, contemporary African art to a broad audience through a series of highly visible artists’ projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions in public spaces, like this virtual gallery. Your support goes in a long way in helping MoCADA create exhibitions and other special programs that benefit the community. Click GiveMo to give a gift today.
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