Religion

The arts are integral to the expression of African-derived religions and include chants, dance, rituals, ceremonies, feasts, altar construction, cloth work, beadwork (collares de mazo), ritual coverings (bandeles), carvings, paintings, and sculptures. The arts bring cosmology and ritual into the quotidian and the ceremonial without losing the profundity of their contextual (and contested) referential meanings. The visual arts come in a variety of media and colors; the drums and divination tools are constructed from a variety of colorful materials. Artistic objects ground ashe in the individual and the community.

Artistic representations of the orishas depict their ashe as well as their ewa (beauty). Orisha art is ohun oso (adornment/ornament), attractive, and calls attention to the gods. Ase is often depicted as a bird. Carved ornaments depicting the orishas are often placed on the altar and fed with food and blood to give them ashe. Altars are constructed and decorated with the colors of a particular orisha to depict a divine throne of glory. Art objects also depict the priests and priestesses who go between the orishas and the community. The visual arts create a congenial atmosphere for worship. Vodun flags greet the deities—a sign of respect—and invoke the presence of the spirits. The vévé blazons drawn with powdered substances on the ground depict a cosmic connection with the gods and goddesses at the top. In Haiti, artistic representation depicts the virtues of self-restraint and steadfastness.