Kathia St. Hilaire: A Spiralist and Political Exhibition at Galerie Perrotin

A visual storm that cycles through history again and again... Kathia St. Hilaire is showcasing The Vocals of the Chaotic Burst, a exhibition of intricate engravings and collages inspired by Haitian spiralist literature at Galerie Perrotin. Running from January 10 to March 7, 2026, this visual experience centers on pervasive spiral motifs, which the artist employs to explore Haiti's political and migratory history. Each piece features a dense visual vocabulary, crafted from raw materials such as barbed wire, metal, repurposed fabrics, and packaging from skin-lightening products. These elements are layered into complex compositions that visually represent the stratification of diasporic narratives, fractured heritage, and ongoing efforts at reconstruction.

Presented as a tribute to Frankétienne, the Haitian writer who passed away in 2025, the exhibition echoes his 1968 novel Mûr à crever. Each piece responds to a line from this foundational work of spiralisme, a literary movement that emerged under the dictatorship of François Duvalier. The spiral becomes a central motif, symbolizing the infinite cycle of political and natural disasters. "I speak the language of hysterical storms to the Caribbean islands," Frankétienne once wrote. This language of cyclones, furious rains, and raging seas runs throughout Kathia St. Hilaire's works, expressed through swirling patterns and fragmented scenes. The exhibition weaves together poetic, religious, and political references into a dynamic visual experience that rejects linearity, inviting viewers to explore in layered impressions, guided by their own gaze.

The migratory experience as an ongoing tension

The scenes depicted evoke perilous crossings, desperate escape attempts, imprisonments, and forced returns. Clusters of silhouetted figures packed onto makeshift boats, individuals held behind barbed wire, or bodies suspended in suspended anticipation—these images weave a narrative of wandering marked by uncertainty. The artist explores Haitian migration to Nassau, detention centers at Guantanamo in the 1990s, and contemporary deportation policies. Through these motifs, she offers a perspective where migration becomes a fundamental condition of life, with no guaranteed destination in sight.

Hurricanes, a recurring theme in the artist’s work, serve as powerful dual metaphors: both as representatives of climate disaster and as symbols of unresolved colonial histories. Their swirling, radar-like shapes evoke the routes of enslaving ships, linking past and present. The artist weaves together water, braided hair, and the memories of women deported—those who carried seeds into exile. These artworks transform into tangible archives, layering present-day realities, African ancestral heritage, and the ongoing violence of migration.

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Materials, Engraving, and Physical Memory

Kathia St. Hilaire's work is built around a reduction engraving technique, where drawings are transferred onto linoleum plates and then printed onto various materials. This approach allows her to layer up to fifty coats of ink and texture, resulting in a dense surface filled with fragments of previous works, torn tires, banana leaves, printed papers, and repurposed objects. The metal elements, meticulously polished, inserted, and embedded as a backdrop, evoke the practices of Brasaj de Noailles, a historic hub of Haitian art that is now under threat from gang violence.

The metal structures integrated into the artworks – chains, beads, wires – serve as visual barriers, extending the sense of enclosure suggested by the spiral motifs. The beading, inspired by drapo vaudou, adds another layer to the piece, though without using sequins: the artist employs engraving and raw materials to reconstruct these sacred objects with a distinct aesthetic. Through these gestures, she explores the potential for a form of resilient plasticity, where each element — fabric, trace, or debris — becomes a carrier of history.

A Visual Display Bridging Spirituality and Chaos

Incorporating vèvè, sacred symbols of Voodoo, the artist explores crossroads, rituals, and the influence of spiritual figures on human journeys. She builds on the work of artists like Myrlande Constant and Pierrot Barra, infusing it with a fragmented and contemporary visual language. These elements come together to form a unique artistic vocabulary rooted in syncretism, dislocation, and reconstruction.

Some artworks depict butterflies fluttering over barbed wire, a powerful and ambiguous motif borrowed from Gabriel García Márquez and Edwidge Danticat. They serve as omens—harbingers of disaster or signs of renewal. This tension between downfall and rebirth runs throughout the entire exhibition, which deliberately avoids linear storytelling or moral lessons. Chaos remains a core principle in this curated chaos.

An exhibition to experience slowly, without the promise of resolution

The exhibition The Vocals of the Chaotic Burst offers no definitive conclusion. Instead, it opens up a fragmented space—layered, tense, and full of allusions. Through a rigorous printmaking process and an extreme manipulation of materials, Kathia St. Hilaire creates an unstable landscape where past, present, and the prospect of the future remain intertwined. Visitors are invited to navigate this web of scattered shapes, images, and voices—without any promise of resolution, but with the potential for reconstruction.

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