Pierrot Barra

With his wife Marie Cassaise, Barra worked from the Iron Market of Port-au-Prince, where he made "Vodou repositories from toys, fabric, glass, sequins, goats' horns, rosaries, costume jewelry, compact mirrors, Christmas ornaments, crucifixes, and other discarded materials.

[3] He often used discarded American toys and dolls as the basis of his works, embellishing them with "charms, glitter, sequins, beads, and crosses that were originally intended for altars.

His works have been featured in shows in Port-au-Prince, New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, and Madrid, and he is the only Haitian artist to which an entire book is dedicated (Vodou Things: The Art of Pierrot Barra and Marie Cassaise by Donald J.

[6] Barra assisted his mother in her work and business for thirty years, and it was from her that he gained the necessary skills to begin making his own art.

[5] Pierrot Barra sold his work, what he calls “Vodou Things,” from a stall in the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

This is because West African slaves brought to Haiti incorporated Catholicism into their belief system in order to gain understanding and power over their French white masters, creating what is now known as Haitian Vodou.

The main guiding lwa of Barra’s life and art, his met tet, are St. Jacques Majeur, Ezili Danto, Ogou Badagri, and Agwe.

[12] The most iconic part of Barra’s works are the plastic dolls, which some scholars believe is his greatest contribution to Haitian art and sculpture.