Conceptual Threads - Tina Girouard and Antoine Oleyant's Drapo Vodou

This project chronicles the lives of Tina Girouard (b. United States, 1946 – 2020) and Antoine Oleyant (b. Haiti, 1955 – 1992), artists who forged an intimate relationship through Haitian sequin arts. Girouard, a celebrated performance artist in 1970s New York, is less known for her interest in Haitian Vodou. I connect Girouard’s Vodou-inspired works to her conceptualist practice through her collaborations with Antoine, an enigmatic figure in art history. I navigate Antoine’s archival absence through close study of his sequin works, which revolutionized the Haitian arts scene by transforming sequined “drapo Vodou” (flags used in Vodou rituals) into art objects. Girouard's DNA Icons series (1980), Air Space Stage and Floor Space Stage (1972), and Antoine's Bosou & Dambala (1991), Homage Haitian (1991), as well as Girouard & Antoine's Under A Spell (1992) make up the case studies of this project.

This project asks how we might we better understand work produced by a New York 70s avant-garde artist through her approach to craft and textiles. It motivates a deeper appreciation for craft as critical to conceptualism's integration of "everyday" and "domestic" objects into art making. It further asks why sequin art been relegated to secondary status within art historical discourse, and how we might better appreciate Haitian sequin arts as embodying the complex and contemporary sensibilities of canonical conceptualism. Lastly, this project advocates for a submerged perspective engaging sequin arts as a contemporary medium embodying contemporary Haitian politics amidst persistent U.S. imperialism.