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Photo by Ronald Smits
Graduation project

Sodo, traicing my steps back through braiding

Agatha Prieto Jeanty

A multimedia installation uses braiding as a way to reconnect to ancestral Haitian heritage and refuse colonial stigmatisation.

Agatha Prieto Jeanty’s self-decolonizing research into her Haitian heritage led her to an appreciation of vodou as a practice that honours the relationship between humans and nature as divine. Drawing inspiration from the belief that maroons escaped slavery in Haiti by weaving themselves into the landscape, Jeanty presents a multimedia installation that uses braiding and sound to intertwine herself to Agwe Ta Royo — a vodou ancestor that animates the renowned Saut D’Eau waterfall in Haiti. The seemingly ordinary act of braiding is shown to be a form of self-care and community bonding that empowers Jeanty to reconnect with the divinity of ancestral knowledge and refuse colonial stigmatization.

Department

Contextual Design

Degree

Master

Graduation year

2023

Instagram

@agatha_pj

Photoshoot

Ronald Smits