Ronald Edmond

Ronald Edmond is an artist living in Carrefour-Feuilles, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who opened his studio in the Iron Market in 2005. His workshop was torched and then burned to the ground by gangsters on July 7th. Partly this was due to the fact that his atelier is next to the police station which the gangs had targeted, but it is also related to the fact that urban gangs are now targeting artists since they have access to foreigners and cash. He has lost all of his work; more than 500 pieces as well as all his materials. Art workshops are important engines of economic activity in Haitian urban neighborhoods which employ youths after school and provide income for dozens of people. I met Ronald some years ago when I was working on my current book project on Haitian sorcery and have since collected quite a few of his pieces which can be used as protective talisman or in Haitian creole gad. He is a lovely person. Ronald apprenticed with Pierrot Barra, the artist who has been described as bringing the “vodou aesthetic” into Haitian contemporary art and who was an oungan or vodou priest as well as a member of the Bizango secret society and its symbolism pervades their work, but Ronald also sews the elaborately beaded dwapo or vodou flags as well. His work has been exhibited at the Galerie Monnin, Port-au-Prince, as well as the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, where his work was exhibited as part of the 2013 In Extremis show which travelled to Quebec, as well as the British Museum, and elsewhere in the US. I have included here a few images of his work. I have started this Go Fund Me campaign to help get him on his feet again. Please spread the word!