Jean-Ulrick Désert is one of the artists in the HAITI exhibition in the Grand Palais in Paris.
He presents one of the installations of his ongoing Goddess Project.
About:
Jean-Ulrick Désert is a conceptual and visual-artist born in Port-au-prince Haiti. Désert’s artworks vary in forms such as public billboards, actions, paintings, site-specific sculptures, video and objects and emerge from a tradition of conceptual-work engaged with social/cultural practices.
Well known for his “Negerhosen2000”, his provocative “Burqa Project” and his poetic “Goddess Projects” he has said his practice may be characterized as visualizing “conspicuous invisibility”. He has exhibited widely at such venues as The Brooklyn Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Grey Art Gallery NYU/Studio Museum of Harlem, Walker Art Center in the USA, Cité Internationale des Arts in France, The Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst in Germany and in galleries and public venues as well in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Ghent, Brussels.
Goddess Project, 2009-Present.
He is the recipient of awards, public commissions, private philanthropy, including Lower Manhattan Cultural Council , Villa Waldberta-Munich, Kulturstiftung der Länder (Germany) and Cité des Arts (France). He received his degrees at Cooper Union and Columbia University (New York, USA) and has lectured or been a critic at Princeton, Yale, Columbia in the USA, Humboldt University in Berlin and l’école supérieur des beaux arts, Paris.
Jn.U Désert has lectured and been an invited critic at Princeton University, Yale, Columbia, Humboldt and École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He advises and teaches for Trans Art Institute.
Désert established his Berlin studio-practice in 2002
Goddess Project
The Goddess Projects (2009-current) consist of various art-works which use the French-American performer & social-activist Josephine Baker as its central leitmotif.
The Goddess Projects include:
1. Shrine of the Divine Negress No.1
2009, PVC, acrylic paint, colored gels, textiles, ± dims. 400cm x 275cm
Installation at the Fortress of San Carlos de la Cabana in conjunction with the 10th Havana Biennale (re-installed at DadaPost Berlin in 2010) The original installation included a shroud with the image of Charlemagne Péralte, the martyred Haitian nationalist
2. Divine Negress Butterfly Fans
2009, Die-cut 4-color Offset printed cardboard and wood
1000 hand-fans is distributed to the public with the quotation: “A butterfly flapping its wings…can generate a violent storm”-Kofi Annan, (Nobel Prize speech, 2001 Oslo)
3. The Goddess Constellations / 5:00.12.04.1975.48°51N2°21E
2011, Textile, pins, embossed metal-foil, ± dims. 300cm x 300cm
A 3-dimensional map of the sky above Paris (48°51N2°21E) marking the hour (5AM) of Josephine Baker’s *death on the 12th of April 1975, approximately 700 ‘stars’ each containing an embossed portrait
4. The Goddess Constellations / Fragment Nr.1, Paris 5AM 12 April 1975
(VARIATION) Velour-paper, foam, embossed metal 2011, 140cm x 100 cm
5. The Goddess Constellations / Sky Above Port-au-prince Haiti 12 January 2010, 21:53 UTC
2012, Velour-papers on foam, pins, embossed metal-foil, ±300cm x 300cm from 9 individual 100cm x 100cm panels
This artwork reflects the view of the sky above Haiti during the officially recorded time of the 2010 Earthquake. Approximately 750 stars containing embossed portraits of Josephine Baker as the Goddess
6. The Goddess Temple / Arabesque
2014, Embossed Velvet textiles on aerated-concrete blocks on wood-pallets ±300cm x 300cm
An imaginary “ruin” of Josephine Baker’s unconstructed Parisian villa of 1928 (by Adolf Loos). Embossed velvets contain a poem “Al Atlal” (the ruins) in its original Arab
