VOA标准英语2011--For Haitian Artist Edouard Duval-Carrié, Home is Where the Heart is

For Haitian Artist Edouard Duval-Carrié, Home is Where the Heart is

Every artist has an inspiration. For some, it's a person. For others, it's a place.

Hard at work in his Miami studio, Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrié pours his roots into his art.

“What I try in my work is to show that Haiti is a very complex place," he explains. "It has a very convoluted¹ history, interesting history, and that’s worth looking at. That’s worth studying.”

For more than 30 years, Duval-Carrié has focused on Haitian themes: a people once colonized², viewed as disease-ridden.

"I’ve been downloading bacterias from the computer. And these are little collages³ that I’ve been doing," he explains. "They’ve been saying that Haitians carry all sorts of diseases so I’m playing with the idea."

And then there's Voodoo - that hybrid⁴ religion born among African slaves brought to Haiti.

Voodoo gods are a major part of Duval-Carrié's work and many Haitians' lives, he says, despite others' negative views of the religion.

“They have constructed that religion as something completely off the wall, but it’s not,” Duval-Carrié insists.

Last year, he even incorporated a Voodoo deity⁵ in a piece on Haiti’s earthquake.

“She’s under Earth this time and holding up what’s left of the cathedral,” he says as he shows the work of art.

He says it shows that Haitians have to draw upon all available resources for strength.

“Voodoo to the help of Catholicism," the artist jokes.

Bernice Steinbaum owns a gallery featuring several of Duval-Carrié's works. She says Haitians feel the need to hide Voodooism, but Duval-Carrié is helping⁶ change that.

“He has given faces to the Voodoo gods. Heretofore, we would read about them, and we would talk about them but we never could picture their faces,” Steinbaum says.

And back at his studio in the heart of Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, Duval-Carrié's other contributions are visible. He co-founded the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance to support Haitian art and culture.

“Organizing cultural events, I mean that’s my passion," he says. "And as soon as we got here, we founded the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance and we’ve been in existence practically as long as I’ve been here.”

Duval-Carrié hopes people will continue to pay attention to Haiti beyond the catastrophes⁷ it has suffered.

“It really didn’t have to take 300,000 deaths for everybody to focus their lights on Haiti,” he notes.

And as long as he’s producing art, it will be hard not to take notice.

1 convoluted   

adj.旋绕的；复杂的

参考例句：

• The snake slithered through a convoluted path.蛇在羊肠小道上爬行。
• The policy is so convoluted even college presidents are confused.这项政策太令人费解，甚至连大学校长们也是一头雾水。

2 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

3 collages   

n.拼贴画( collage的名词复数 )；杂烩

参考例句：

• My work includes mixed media, paintings and digital collages. 我的工作包括混合媒介，绘画和数码拼贴。 来自互联网
• I love making photo collages. 我喜欢做照片拼贴。 来自互联网

4 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

5 deity   

n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物)

参考例句：

• Many animals were seen as the manifestation of a deity.许多动物被看作神的化身。
• The deity was hidden in the deepest recesses of the temple.神藏在庙宇壁龛的最深处。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 catastrophes   

n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难

参考例句：

• Two of history's worst natural catastrophes occurred in 1970. 1970年发生了历史上最严重两次自然灾害。 来自辞典例句
• The Swiss deposits contain evidence of such catastrophes. 瑞士的遗址里还有这种灾难的证据。 来自辞典例句