Sculpture by the Kids of the Gran Rue

 

For generations, kids who live in the neighborhood of Gran Rue, an urban ghetto in downtown Port-au-Prince, have worked after school. Traditionally, they were staining wooden tourist items with shoe polish. As they got older, they graduated to sanding and eventually to carving details into the pieces and maybe to actually carving statues. The locals make trays, walking sticks, powder boxes, decorative tea sets, vases & bowls, and all sorts of kitsch.

 In the last two generations, a few of those kids grew up and something changed; they started incorporating some of the industrial leftovers that litter the neighborhood, and made the transition to fine art by building bizarre sculptures from the car and truck parts and other junk that was laying around.

The first three names that were important in this movement were Eugene, Celeur and Guyodo, As a group they were known as Atis Rezistans. They attracted international  interest in 2006 and have traveled the world building their art in museums and galleries. As time passes, the block is becoming joyfully infected with creativity. In the last few years, many more artists have emerged and kids as young as four years old have started  making art from junk.

There are two main groups of these kids are Ti Moun Klere and Ti Moun Rezistans

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The Gran Rue was hit hard by the earthquake. People died, houses, stores, banks and markets collapsed. The loss of life and of limb on the Gran Rue was unspeakable. and the children, especially, were traumatized.

 

  All of the profits on kids art will be given to the artists when I go to Haiti in July. I would like to have some of money to spread around.

The art is intense and intuitive, but it does not photograph at all well. It looks and feels, much more positive, in person.

 

More kids art