Leah Gordon

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Gordon in 2021

Leah Gordon (born 1959) is a British photographer, artist, curator, writer and filmmaker.[1] Her work explores the intervolved and intersectional histories of the Caribbean plantation system, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the Enclosure Acts and the creation of the British working-class. She has made various work in Haiti, such as the photographs of Kanaval, which was published in 2021 by Here Press and exhibited at the New Art Exchange, Nottingham in 2012; and the documentary film Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters (2022, with Eddie Hutton-Mills).[2]

Work[edit]

Gordon has made various photographic work in Haiti, such as about Haitian Carnival (Kanaval);[3][4][5] Freemasons;[6][7] the three-tiered racial classification system created by the 18th-century French colonialist Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry;[1][8][9][10] and the tailors of Port-au-Prince.[11] She has also made photographic work about airport prayer spaces.[12][13]

She is a co-founder of Ghetto Biennale, a biannual international contemporary arts exhibition in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[14][15][16]

Publications[edit]

  • Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti. London: Soul Jazz, 2010. Photography by Gordon. ISBN 978-0955481734. With essays by Madison Smartt Bell ("Spirit sources of the Haitian Revolution"), Donald Cosentino ("Aristocrats"), Richard Fleming ("Kanaval"), Kathy Smith ("Lansetkòd: memory, mimicry, masculinity") and Myron M. Beasley ("The performance of possibilities").[17]
    • Revised and expanded second edition. London: Here, 2021. ISBN 978-1999349479. Includes new photographs and oral histories. With essays by Gordon ("Transgressive Histories and Disorderly Ancestors"), Madison Smartt Bell, Kathy Smith, and Myron M. Beasley.
  • Ghetto Biennale = Geto Byenal: 2009–2015. London: No Eraser, 2017. Compiled by Gordon. ISBN 9781999864705. Illustrated catalogue documenting the first four Ghetto Biennale events. With written contributions by Emilie Boone, Léonard Jean Baptiste, Makenson Bijou, Claudel Casseus, Rossi Jacques Casimir, John Cussans, Jean D'Amérique, Peter Haffner, Charlotte Hammond, John Kieffer, Jean-Daniel Lafontant, Elizabeth McAlister, Polly Savage and Katherine Smith.

Exhibitions[edit]

Solo exhibitions[edit]

  • Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 2012[18]

Exhibitions curated by Gordon[edit]

  • Pòtoprens: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince, curated by Gordon and Edouard Duval-Carrié. Includes work by 25 Haitian artists. Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, New York, 2018. With work by Katelyne Alexis, Josué Azor, Karim Bléus, Myrlande Constant, Ronald Edmond, André Eugène, Guyodo (Frantz Jacques), Celeur Jean Hérard, Michel Lafleur, Dubréus Lhérisson, Ti Pelin (Jean Salomon Horace), Evel Romain, Jean Claude Saintilus, Maggie Steber, Roberto Stephenson, and Yves Telemaque.[19][20][21][22]

Films[edit]

  • A Pig's Tale – documentary; commissioned for Channel 4; 52 mins
  • Atis Rezistans: The Sculptors of Grand Rue – 32 mins
  • Bounda pa Bounda: A Drag Zaka – documentary; 20 mins

All three films are compiled on the Iron in the Soul: The Haiti Documentary Films of Leah Gordon DVD from Soul Jazz Records.[23]

  • Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters (2022) – documentary; co-directed with Eddie Hutton-Mills; 74 mins[24]


See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Leah Gordon's best photograph". The Guardian. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  2. ^ Le, Phuong (11 November 2022). "Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters review – spirited and striking". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  3. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (6 July 2010). "Behind the mask: Kanaval captures the hidden Haiti". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Juxtapoz Magazine - Leah Gordon's Photographs of Kanaval in Haiti". www.juxtapoz.com. 20 June 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  5. ^ Bayley, Bruno (2 June 2010). "Fright Night". www.vice.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  6. ^ Jelly-Schapiro, Joshua (2 June 2018). "Picturing Haiti's Freemasons". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  7. ^ Bourton, Lucy (29 June 2017). "Leah Gordon photographs the Freemasons of contemporary Haiti". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  8. ^ Sheerin, Mark (15 May 2014). "Interwoven Histories: Exploring Britain and Haiti". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  9. ^ Politanoff, Evelyne (5 July 2012). "Leah Gordon: 'Caste' The Nine Degrees Of Skin Color". HuffPost. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Picture preview: Leah Gordon portraits of Caste". The Independent. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  11. ^ "New Writing: Leah Gordon and the Tailors of Port-au-Prince". Photoworks. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Дворец аминя". Esquire Russia. 12 September 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  13. ^ Morris, Kadish (21 August 2017). "Photographing Prayer Spaces in Airports Around the World". AnOther. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  14. ^ Pillault, Théophile (19 January 2016). "Le Guide Vice de l'Art contemporain". www.vice.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  15. ^ Vanneschi, Myriam (27 December 2013). "The Many Contradictions of a "Ghetto Biennale"". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  16. ^ "The Biennial Questionnaire: Leah Gordon". artreview.com. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  17. ^ "Leah Gordon: Kanaval in Haiti". www.telegraph.co.uk. 13 July 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  18. ^ "Leah Gordon: Kanaval - Vodou, Politics And Revolution On The Streets Of Haiti". a-n.co.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  19. ^ Smith, Roberta (19 October 2018). "Four Knockout Group Shows to See Now". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  20. ^ Liscia, Valentina Di (3 November 2018). "The Transcendent Spirit of Haitian Contemporary Art". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  21. ^ Catbagan, Amber Jamilla Musser and Maureen (3 October 2018). "PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince'". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  22. ^ Wilson-Goldie, Kaelen (30 November 2018). "'PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  23. ^ "Iron in the Soul: – The Haiti Documentary Films of Leah Gordon". soundsoftheuniverse.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  24. ^ "Kanaval: keeping Haiti's history alive". New Internationalist. 25 November 2022. Retrieved 5 March 2023.

External links[edit]


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