REVIEW: A Siren’s Invitation: Fabiola Jean-Louis, “Waters of the Abyss” at the Chicago Cultural Center
Installation image of Waters of the Abyss. Courtesy of the Chicago Cultural Center.
REVIEW
Fabiola Jean-Louis, Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom
Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Rooms, 2nd Floor North
78 E. Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602
June 19 – September 28, 2025
By Xiao daCuhna
“Thou rememberest since
Once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music?“ – William Shakespeare
Imagine an aquatic realm deep in the oceans, where light trickles away into silence and somberness. It’s likely not pure darkness, as land dwindlers such as ourselves might speculate. Instead, colorful hues gleam off corals, shells, and pearls, caressing castles, caves, trenches, and temples undiscovered by human eyes.
Above the ocean, fishboats pass with the blessings of Agwé, the water deity. Under the waters, lost spirits found their eternal home following the mermaid’s guiding melody.
That is the spiritual nation described in Haitian Vodou beliefs.
That is the world presented in Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom at the Chicago Cultural Center.
In this exhibition, Haitian-born, New York-based conceptual artist Fabiola Jean-Louis created a series of papier-mâché sculptures and paper-based textiles to materialize erased Afro-Haitian identity and history using Vodou mythologies as the vessel.
A decentralized religion without a single leader or dominating doctrine, Vodou is a “creolized New World system” combining traditional West African beliefs with Catholism and Freemasonry. It lacks concrete orthodoxy or a central liturgy, allowing variations and differences among those who practice the religion, especially between Haitians and the Haitian diaspora. Therefore, it is safe to say that the Vodou religion is the very representation of free thinking, fluidity, and transcendence.
In Waters of the Abyss, Jean-Louis found her inspiration from the aquatic realm in Vodou mythology, where ancestral spirits reside. According to the Vodou myth, a journey to the water realm is one of transformation and revelation, symbolizing the liberation from earthly confinement and the unsheathing of cognitive possibilities.
To visualize this inward exploration, Jean-Louis created a set of papier-mâché sculptures portraying the various architectures of the underwater world. Titled An Entry Point to Heaven, these sculptures source materials from the ocean, such as shells, corals, and glass. They also incorporate various crystals, weaving energy and spiritual guidance into their compositions. Being as tall as an average adult’s upper torso, it feels like these stairs, paths, and gateways are inviting us in.
What is behind the door? What lies at the end of the ascension? We don’t know. Perhaps a conversation with our ancestors, or a confrontation with our shadow self. What we do know, however, is that we are now tracing the waters on a path walkable only by our souls.
Like every mythological system, Vodou is also built around significant figures.
An Entry Point to Heaven by Fabiola Jean-Louis. Courtesy of the Chicago Cultural Center.
Lwas, the equivalent of the Holy Spirit and the Saints in Catholicism or the deities in traditional Greek mythologies, rule and oversee each nanchon (nation) in Vodou’s world. The religion believes twins (duos) possess unique powers that transcend them from ordinary humans to sacred beings. Therefore, lwas often came in pairs, known as the Marsa, or the “sacred twins.”
In the water realm of spirit, the magic twins are Agwé and his consort, La Sirene. Agwé, the masculine spirit, blesses fishboats and sailors. Meanwhile, La Sirene, which pop culture generalizes as sirens and mermaids, is the feminine deity deeply connected to the unseen world of spirits and energy — one that Jean-Louis draws personal correlations with.
During the transatlantic slave trade, La Sirene became the very symbol of resistance and resilience. Physically, she is a stunning mermaid with long, wavy hair whose look and form fuse features of African and European ancestries. Mythologies believe La Sirene can shift between aquatic and human forms, and connects her power of transformation with the ability to adapt, morph, and change to thrive in different environments.
Using papier-mâché, shells, crystals, and mirrors, Jean-Louis sculpted two standing mermaid torsos, titling them the Mermaid Portals. The scales are brown, white, and blue— the dominant colors associated with the Vodus ocean gods. The center of each portal is a frilly seagrean tunnel. While Western tales condemn the sirens as evil monsters who seduce and kill sailors, in Vodou myths, they are connectors between physical and spiritual realms. At the same time, they are also metaphors for female strength. These portals, whether transporting inward into the artist or outward to a higher plane, are the perfect embodiment for the artist’s identity as a Haitian diasporic woman.
While many may regard Jean-Louis’ work as mythical, magical, and philosophical, the artist’s practice is in fact deeply rooted in racial and gender politics.
“This series was born from a profound question: What lies at the center of Black freedom? To explore this, I delved deeply into the history of my homeland, Haiti—the first free Black nation in the world. My research into the Haitian Revolution led to a realization that African-centered spiritualities, particularly Vodou, may have played a pivotal role in the fight for freedom,” writes the artist on her website.
Her adaptation of Haitian mythological duality is also an investigation of the dualities in Haitian-American diaporic identity. Similar to how the Vodou religion has developed over the course of several centuries by absorbing Western theology, Jean-Louis’ practice is a growing exploration of Blackness in the intersections of cultures and politics. Looking simultaneously backwards in history and forward through an Afro-futurism lens, the artist speculates a Haitian future built upon ancestry, morphability, and imagination.
Installation image of Waters of the Abyss. Courtesy of the Chicago Cultural Center.
“In Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom, Fabiola Jean-Louis transforms familiar materials into intricate and striking portals for her ancestry to connect with present-day viewers. Showcasing her work in the Chicago Rooms has transformed the galleries into a place of warmth, reflection, and liberation,” says Clinée Hedspeth, Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Events.
Meanwhile, Jean-Louis’ powerful depiction of female emotionality and strength is a solemn reclamation of black women’s collective voice erased from a patriarchal history. For example, Lwa, a papier-mâché sculpture with painted surfaces and applied abalone shells, glass, crystal, metal, and other mixed media, portrays a woman dressed in a gold-embroidered red gown and an extravagant headpiece, highlighting the feminine entity in the sacred twin in the Vodou deity system. This connection between sacrecity and womanhood pays tribute to women’s strength and psyche. Alongside the prevailing references to La Serene throughout the exhibition, these works experiment with versions of a black utopia observed through the female gaze.
Part archive, part speculation, Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom is an Afro-surrealism epic about history, identity, migration, transcendence, and spirituality. Featuring multi-disciplinary artist Fabiola Jean-Louis’ largest body of work to date, the exhibition transports visitors into the spiritual aquatic world of the Vodou religion. Enter the portal like sailors who followed the siren’s song to feel Jean-Louis’ tender, intricate, and complex world of femininity, transcendence, and reimagination.
Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom runs through September 28. An eponymous publication featuring art and text by Fabiola Jean-Louis alongside essays by additional contributors is also available for purchase at the Buddy Store inside the Chicago Cultural Center.
Xiao daCunha is the Bridge Visual Art editor, and a writer and artist living in Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri.
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