The Louisiana State Museum’s new exhibit “Mystery in Motion: African American Masking and Spirituality in Mardi Gras” at Jackson Square Rectory in New Orleans examines multicultural spirituality in the carnival traditions of New Orleans’ black communities.
Guest curators, Kim Vaz-Deville and Ron Bechet, from Xavier University of Louisiana explore this subject through the presentation of more than numerous carnival costumes and masks in dialogue with extraordinary African artifacts representative of cultures, religions and art that influenced their creation. These objects are on loan from the collections of the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris and the Southern University in New Orleans.
African Americans in New Orleans have long used Mardi Gras as a setting for spiritual expression echoing African, Islamic, Native American, and European belief systems. Mystery in Motion celebrates the way skeleton gangs, Baby Dolls, and traditional Oshun and Nefertiti parade krewes incorporate spiritual themes from a variety of sources to create Mardi Gras masks, costumes, and rituals deeply rooted in a shared experience.
“There are so many things that happen on Mardi Gras that it’s impossible to capture every aspect, sound and experience. The goal of the exhibition is to provide an opportunity to contemplate the spiritual dimensions of African-American Mardi Gras masks that are hidden in plain sight,” explains guest curator Kim Vaz-Deville.
The exhibition presents “Black Indian” costumes loaned by their creators. For example, Grand Chief Alfred Doucette’s Marie Laveau costume depicts the voodoo queen’s grave in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, surrounded by the spy, the wild man, and the tribe’s standard bearer. by Doucette, the Flaming Arrows, who awaken his spirit on Mardi Gras morning.
Mystery in Motion is on display in New Orleans until November 28, 2021. After its visit to the Presbytery, the exhibition will be part of a larger exhibition, The Black Indians of New Orleansat the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, scheduled to open in fall 2022. For more information on the exhibition and associated programming, visit louisianastatemuseum.org.
This exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information on the exhibition.
