Water has been a common theme in Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrié’s work since the beginning of his artistic career. Through the connection to memory and identity, this element signifies the heart of culture and tradition of the African Diaspora. It is representative of West African spiritual values expressed though the religion of Vodou, as it is the space connecting the realms of the living and the spiritual. This paper will analyze the meaning and importance of this element to the history of displaced West Africans who came to the Americas through migrations of the slave trade. Through a close examination of water in select pieces from Duval-Carrié’s bodies of work, entitled “Divine Revolutions” and “Imagined Landscapes,” the unification of a diasporic identity and a strong bond to ancestry is created forming a unique cultural identity. This imagery will be examined through the lens of Vodou spirituality and traditions, and compared to contemporary artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, who cultivates a similar visual dialogue of life in the Caribbean. Ancestral memory and identity become key roles in this portrayal of aquatic imagery and help to shed light on the cosmology and conceptualization of contemporary Caribbean life.
