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Destroying Cages

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2025): Destroying Cages and Reclaiming Freedom

Freedom is a Dialogue

Submitted
January 15, 2025
Published
2025-09-15

Abstract

This piece examines the fluid nature of freedom through four 4”x4” Acrylic paintings set against a paper background with written notes and arrows between the pieces. Collectively, the questions, pieces, and directions disrupt conceptualizations of freedom as a picture-perfect static endpoint, instead presenting it as an ongoing, messy dialogue through abstract visual language. The artwork explores our complex relationships with land, imagination, self, culture, community and history. Each image features fluid lines that intermingle and flow, mirroring how ideas and concepts of liberation blend and evolve. Rather than presenting freedom as fixed, the pieces invite viewers to discover freedom in motion. The primary colour palette of red, blue, and yellow serves a dual purpose. In art theory, these foundational colours give birth to countless colour combinations. Similarly, within these works, this colour palette suggests that our pursuit of liberation gives rise to infinite possibilities. Blue and red carry the colours of the Haytian flag forward into these works. As a descendant of the freedom fighters who liberated my family and countless others from slavery’s grip, I see in these foundational hues not mere pigments, but centuries of struggle distilled into colour—each brushstroke a quiet homage to those who bled for the freedom we continue to seek. Additionally, I use “Hayti” instead of the common spelling of Haïti as an act of reclamation. When our revolutionary leader, Jean-Jacques Déssalines, declared the country’s independence in 1804, my ancestors deliberately named the country “Hayti” to honour the original Taíno name, Ayiti, and reject the colonial renaming of the land. Using Hayti connects me to that revolutionary moment when we successfully overthrew slavery to establish a free Black republic.