Statements by and About the Deceased Artist

Belkis Ayón

doi:10.1353/cal.2014.0170

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Statements by and About the Deceased Artist
Belkis Ayón (bio)

When Belkis Ayón was allowed to visit meetings of Abakuá she was afforded a privilege no other woman had ever been allowed: she entered and observed the Havana ceremonies of the all-male secret society and learned as much as she could about this secret religious group, and she used what she had acquired as her primary introduction to learning more about this African derived society. This primary learning, of course, led her to study Abakuá in depth, especially its myth of the female Silkán, a narrative she used to make art that continues to fascinate and intrigue art lovers the world over.

I aspire above all to give my vision, my points of view as observer, presenting in a synthesized form the aesthetic, plastic, and poetic aspects I discovered in Abakuá, persistently relating them to the nature of man, with vivid personalities, with feeling which sometimes grips us, feelings we don’t know how to define, with these fugitive emotions … with the spiritual. I incorporate into my work symbols from other cultures to express my ideas with better richness and clarity.

I incorporate into my work personalities like the Leopard Man, a figure identified with imposing power and aggression—a “macho” who sacrificed Sikán, the woman who discovered the secret (of Abakuá) and dies at the hands of the men at the altar so that the secret would remain among them and not disappear. The secret consisted of a voice, the SACRED VOICE, produced by the Fish discovered by Sikán coming back from the river. The Fish was the reincarnation of Old Obón Tanzé, from Abasí the Supreme God. The transmission of the sacred voice was finally transmitted to the skin of a goat, a skin which vibrated on the sacred drum EKUÉ.

My images are realized in the form of collography, an engraving technique that consists of a type of printed collage formed from a wide variety of materials arranged and pasted on a cardboard support.

The image of Sikán is evident in all these works because she, like me, lived and lives through me in restlessness, looking insistently for a way out. [End Page 769]