Esther Calixte-Bea's Fyète-Souhou Tribe
Fyète-Souhou (formerly known as Fyète Souhou-te) is a fictional tribe created by Esther Calixte-Bea inspired by her culture and personal life. Fyète meaning pride in haitian creole and Souhou meaning divine in guéré an ivorian dialect. Much like her last name being a combination of her haitian mother and ivorian father's last name, she combined haitian and guéré words to create the name of this tribe. Fyète-Souhou is divine pride or proud to be chosen by God. In this tribe, Calixte-Bea represents hairy black women, their everyday life, traditions and struggles while challenging eurocentric beauty standards. As a hairy women herself, the artist has discovered through her ivorian side of the family that her hairiness is hereditatry and that back in her great grandmother time body hair on women was seen as beautiful and not shameful. She decolonizes beauty through this tribe, discusses the topic of identity, lose of identity while reflecting on her upbringing in Canada. The artist uses painting, drawing, writing, fabric and more to create an immersive world. For Calixte-Bea, creating a fictional tribe is creating a space for healing and allowing the audience to discover an imaginary world they can escape in.
Welcome to the Garden is a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Esther Calixte-Bea. Curated by Cecilia Bracmort, the exhibition delves into topics such as healing, freedom, restoration and community. The immersive exhibition consisting of paintings, drawings, garments, poetry & photography illustrates a fictional tribe of women called Fyète-Souhou. Within this tribe a group of women called the Kea-nin are tasked to travel outside of the island of Tè to gather information from the outside world. While some return from their trip, others stay and settle in strange lands. The offspring of these women called ‘The Lost’ are illustrated wearing white t-shirts and their quest for identity is unfolded across the exhibition. Searching to understand who they are after growing up in a land that wasn’t their own, the descendance go on a journey to return to the island and create a new hybrid identity.
Take a look at the exhibition pamphlet
Photos of the exhibition
Video of the exhibition
Articles & Mentions
https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/arts-visuels/de-l-importance-de-l-exploration/2024-12-07/esther-calixte-bea-a-la-maison-de-la-culture-janine-sutto/la-naissance-d-une-militante-proclamee.php
https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/arts-visuels/827611/esther-calixte-bea-jardin-couleurs
https://www.mediatheque.merignac.com/doc/RADIOFRANCE/2024C52817S0272
Artworks of the Fyète-Souhou tribe
2023-2024
Artworks of the Fyète-Souhou tribe
2020-2022
Af-Flux Biennale Transnationale Noire: Monde Bossale
September 11- December 11 2021
Creation of an Ethereal World | First Solo Exhibition
September 21 -October 28 2021
Creation of an Ethereal World is a solo exhibition featuring the work of emerging artist Esther Calixte-Bea, curated by Cécilia Bracmort. Conceived from a semi-mythological and semi-autobiographical perspective, Creation of an Ethereal World presents the artist’s fantastical universe, filled with bright colours, magical landscapes, and inhabited by marvellous black female characters. Representation is a central notion to Calixte-Bea’s work, as she challenges Western beauty standards and the violence inherited from centuries of colonialism and patriarchy.
In her practice, which incorporates both the ancestral practice of painting and that of selfies in social media, Calixte-Bea creates works that speak to her personal experiences, her quest for identity, and self-acceptance. For Calixte-Bea’s first solo-exhibition, the curator Cécilia Bracmort wanted the exhibition space to become the perfect setting for the artist’s works produced between 2019 and 2021. Thus, La Centrale transforms into a garden, where the characters, personal reflections, and mythologies of Calixte-Bea can fully express themselves. Creation of an Ethereal World presents the inner journey of a young woman of her time towards the acceptance of her body; freed from the feeling of shame and the subliminal messages imposed by a culture of images and consumption.
This project received a grant from Canada Council for the Arts and is supported by Home Depot. Over 100 visitors at vernissage and over 500 vistors overall
Take a look at the exhibition pamphlet
https://issuu.com/lacentralegaleriepowerhouse/docs/plan_de_salle_esther_calixte_bea