2023 Annual Report Update: Retrospective Exhibition

To mark its 10th anniversary, the Center presented 'Racial Slavery, Marronage, and Freedom', a retrospective featuring Edouard Duval-Carrié, Jess Hill, and Rénold Laurent. Each artist, a longtime collaborator of the Center, debuted new work exploring resistance, memory, and the legacy of slavery through bold, layered visual storytelling and reflection.

“Racial Slavery, Marronage, and Freedom: A 10th Anniversary Retrospective” featured artists Edouard Duval-Carrié, Jess Hill, and Rénold Laurent. This retrospective exhibition, along with an accompanying catalog, was an integral part of the 10th anniversary of the Simmons Center.

Each artist showcased in the exhibition had established a long-standing relationship with the Center, with their individual works having been previously exhibited at the Simmons Center. To celebrate the Center's 10th anniversary, these artists came together for a collaborative exhibition for the first time, creating new pieces in honor of this milestone. In addition to the exhibition, the Center hosted an “Artist Talk” event and conducted video interviews where artists shared thoughts about their artwork and their enduring relationships with the Simmons Center.

Artist Jess Hill pictured with quilt "Oh Say Can You See America and Its Birth, 2022
*Credit: Rythum Vinoben*

“...one thing that I discovered is that enslaved people would use quilt patterns as quilt codes when they were running away. So I found that to be just so mind-blowing, that you can say, just through a pattern, you need to stay on this path, or you need to go northwest, or you need to zigzag so the hounds can’t trace you. But I think more people are coming to the understanding of how much history and tradition there is in quilting.”
Jess Hill

Artist Edouard Duval-Carrié pictured with sculpture, “Cécile Fatiman, 2022”
*Credit: Rythum Vinoben*

“I’m an artist first of all, but my relationship with people like you [referring to Tony Bogues], and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, has opened my mind and opened my interest to a history that has, first of all, been neglected-- sometimes put under the carpet. I feel that it has become my duty to make sure that I try to develop some sort of visual language for it.”
Edouard Duval-Carrié

Artist Rénold Laurent pictured with “Marooning, when the slave snatches his freedom, 2022”
*Credit: Rythum Vinoben*

“So my work celebrated hope. Although my paintings do come from or are inspired by a period of darkness or what can be construed as being difficult. But also a little latent joy”

Rénold Laurent (translated from Haitian Creole)