Take a look at the film trailer for multi-media artist Pascal Giocomini’s "Out of Chaos, An Artist’s Journey in Haiti,” [#mce_temp_url#https://vimeo.com/84905576], and you are likely to fall under the spell of the French-American sculptor, photographer and filmmaker’s ability to capture the color, rhythms and sounds of Haiti’s street life, where artistic activity abounds. Deeply involved with Haiti and it's artists for 30 years as the co-owner, along with his Haitian wife, of Galerie Lakaye, Giocomini was anxious to witness the impact of the devastating earthquake of 2010 which killed an estimated 300,000 Haitians. In 2011 he was accepted as a participant in the 2nd Ghetto Biennale, which directed candidates to work in the ghetto slums, creating art from materials found on the ground. As Giocomini labored alongside a collective of Vodou sculptors in one of the poorest slums in Port-au-Prince, he began documenting the profusion of artistic activity happening in this unlikely place.
Out of that experience grew not only his film and the sculptures he constructed, but also a collection of large scale photographs that serve as a link between his art and the community. Eight of Giocomini's powerful photographs on canvas add color to an extraordinarily inventive group of seven, mostly metallic, mixed media sculptures. In creations such as “The Harley Ram," Giocomini makes particularly effective use of a variety of curved lines. While displaying an intuitive sense of imagination and whimsy that rivals that of Dr. Seuss, he re-invents a variety of creatures, manipulating found objects into suggestions of body parts. Common, worn out discards transcend their functions to become compelling works of art.
