Erzulie
Them Years, These Days
curated by Adama Dercilia Bari
Target
2019
acrylic and oil on paper
59 x 78 in.
2019
acrylic and oil on paper
59 x 78 in.
Them Years, These Days, an online exhibition, presents artworks by Haitan-Quebecois Artist Erzulie who is currently based in Montreal. Seeking influences from popular culture, she tracks the utilisation of the body and image from the Black diaspora to re-appropriate. This is done predominately through her use of figurative paintings and drawings created as a method to critique the received associations of identity as product in mass media.
The focus in Them Years, These Days looks to Ezulie’s play in visually parodying the memes and vines that are familiar to locals in Montreal, in the early 2000s. In addition to the ever-present Black cultural impositions in wider western-centric fashion trends. Comically sharing her personal and the local insight into the accumulative collection of self-referential memes in Montreal, she invites us to reflect on the misrepresentations that reduces Blackness, also present in wider western popular culture. Erzulie’s success in hijacking both the localised and the more widespread trends highlights the dependency that images have on Black bodies, which she portrays through the following paintings and drawings.
I‘Target’, acrylic and oil on paper painting, 59 x 78 inches, 2019. One of the figures is shown to be wearing a pair of elaborate sunglasses influenced by the self-referential iconic video of Cardi B Showing off her sunglasses in Italy. For reference link, click here.
‘Bebey Girls and Fashion Show’, acrylic and oil on canvas, 34 x 45 inches, 2018 A painting depicting three prominent female figures that Erzulie has selected from present in African Electronic Music 1975-1982: Album by Francis Bebey. For reference link, click here.
‘Sold Out’ acrylic and oil on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2019. Pulled from Erzulie’s examination of the portrayal that popular brand Nike Jordan in fashion and media.
‘Péter leurs chevilles’, acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches 2020. A piece is pulled from popular video of Roi Heenok, Péter leurs chevilles video/vine. For reference link, click here.
‘Jean Coutu’, pencil on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2020. Influence from hip-hop culture as well as the ever-present Black tropes and characteristics represented in North America and beyond.
The focus in Them Years, These Days looks to Ezulie’s play in visually parodying the memes and vines that are familiar to locals in Montreal, in the early 2000s. In addition to the ever-present Black cultural impositions in wider western-centric fashion trends. Comically sharing her personal and the local insight into the accumulative collection of self-referential memes in Montreal, she invites us to reflect on the misrepresentations that reduces Blackness, also present in wider western popular culture. Erzulie’s success in hijacking both the localised and the more widespread trends highlights the dependency that images have on Black bodies, which she portrays through the following paintings and drawings.
I‘Target’, acrylic and oil on paper painting, 59 x 78 inches, 2019. One of the figures is shown to be wearing a pair of elaborate sunglasses influenced by the self-referential iconic video of Cardi B Showing off her sunglasses in Italy. For reference link, click here.
‘Bebey Girls and Fashion Show’, acrylic and oil on canvas, 34 x 45 inches, 2018 A painting depicting three prominent female figures that Erzulie has selected from present in African Electronic Music 1975-1982: Album by Francis Bebey. For reference link, click here.
‘Sold Out’ acrylic and oil on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2019. Pulled from Erzulie’s examination of the portrayal that popular brand Nike Jordan in fashion and media.
‘Péter leurs chevilles’, acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches 2020. A piece is pulled from popular video of Roi Heenok, Péter leurs chevilles video/vine. For reference link, click here.
‘Jean Coutu’, pencil on paper, 9 x 12 inches, 2020. Influence from hip-hop culture as well as the ever-present Black tropes and characteristics represented in North America and beyond.
Bebey Girls and Fashion Show
2018
acrylic and oil on canvas
34 x 45 in.
2018
acrylic and oil on canvas
34 x 45 in.
Sold Out
2019
acrylic on paper
9 x 12 in.
2019
acrylic on paper
9 x 12 in.
Péter leurs chevilles
2020
acrylic on canvas
9 x 9 in.
2020
acrylic on canvas
9 x 9 in.
Jean Coutu
2020
pencil on paper
9 x 12 in.
2020
pencil on paper
9 x 12 in.
For inquiries, please contact: info@straightlick.com
Artist: Erzulie ︎︎
Curator: Adama Dercilia Bari ︎