A MOCA meeting of Mermaids and a Place to Call Home

Germane Barnes’ installation, “Play-House,” is the second part of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami’s “Welcome to Paradise” courtyard series. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

Architecture is always aesthetic, yet sometimes also narrative. That is one message from Germane Barnes’ installation, “Play-House,” his homage to the shotgun house, home to many Black Americans after Reconstruction and up through the first half of the 20th century. The installation is the second part of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami’s “Welcome to Paradise” courtyard series, which is curated by Adeze Wilford.

Meanwhile, a series of highly unusual mermaids greet visitors from the museum’s fountain as they approach the North Miami venue. “Les Sirènes,” by Haitian-American artist Christopher Mitchell, harkens to the island’s myths and folklore.

While the two works are very different, they share a link with the Black experience in the Americas.

The mermaids inhabiting the fountain in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art by Christopher Mitchell are based on Haitian myths and folklore. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

Barnes, assistant professor and director of the Community Housing & Identity Lab at the University of Miami School of Architecture, has been researching the history of the shotgun house. It first piqued his interest after he won a grant from the Graham Foundation to study porches. The Chicago-based foundation funds architecture projects in dialogue with the arts, culture and society. Barnes’ porch project, “Sacred Stoops: Typological Studies of Black Congregational Spaces,” left him wanting to know more about the shotgun house, a presence in the lives of African-Americans, particularly from across the South.

The installation is an actual playhouse – a full-size structure suitable for exploration by both kids and adults. It recreates a somewhat abstracted version of a shotgun house. While not having kitchens and bathrooms, it has a ball pit for kids to jump into, rings to swing on and other interactive features. The idea was to pull visitors into the installation in the best way possible. “What if we turn it into a playhouse?” Barnes says, of his early brainstorming with Wilford, adding that kids can literally be a part of history.

“First and foremost, people find their inner child. then perhaps learn a bit more about the history of South Florida and the way that things were built,” he says. Many will be most familiar with the home style from New Orleans architecture, where the design is ubiquitous. However, iterations are found throughout the South, though many are quickly falling prey to development.

“We are collapsing these narratives on top of each other,” says Barnes.

Barnes brings students to the six or so remaining shotgun homes in Coconut Grove as part of his teaching practice.

Rings are an interactive part of Play-House, which uses humor and the curiosity of
childhood to convey a serious message. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

It is Wilford’s second year curating the Welcome to Paradise exhibits. Like “Bound//Unbound,” this season’s earlier installation by local artist Alexandra Fields O’Neale, which focused on the Saltwater Underground Railroad (whereby enslaved or escaped individuals boarded boats to the Bahamas), “Play-House” brings to light the oft-hidden history of Miami, says Wiflord.

“It’s about preserving a legacy of homes and styles of architecture and living being very quickly removed from the Southern landscape,” she says.

The homes could be built quickly and easily. In Miami, they often arose where Black workers lived, segregated from where they labored, on, for instance, Miami Beach. Later, Black entertainers, performing for white patrons, helped create the vibrant culture in Overtown which had its share of shotgun homes as well.

“I think you can’t ignore the history of this city and that was a part of it – that is where they were able to live,” says Wilford about the segregation, noting that it remains important for residents and visitors to understand how the city came to be.

With horns and playing a horn, this mermaid sports chains around her tail. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

“Les Sirènes” reaches for a different aspect of the past. In the fountain are life-size two-dimensional mermaids. Yet they are not your usual sea-maidens. Sporting impressive fish tails, the sirens are all photos taken by Mitchell of Black women modeling his vision of the mythical water spirits from Haitian folklore. These watery denizens are clothed in costumes, some revealing, that conjure both awe and thoughts about yes, how  would sea-folk dress themselves? White and black costumes play off one another as do interesting touches, like conical horns adorning one maiden.

“They are all based on verbal stories,” says Mitchell. Raised in New York, but of Haitian heritage, Mitchell and his family frequently traveled to the island. After graduating from SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Mitchell, whose main medium is photography, moved to Haiti about a year before the devastating 2010 earthquake.

While there, he traveled the country, including helping people after the earthquake find relatives and friends when communication was down. In his journeys, he heard many stories about female water spirits that inhabit the ocean, rivers and other water features. The sea-women are often cautionary figures, sometimes luring people to their doom: But to be respected.

A mermaid with a bird sports an astonishing yellow tail. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock)

He created seven mermaids for the show, working closely with MOCA Curatorial Assistant Kimari Jackson. The selection of Mitchell came from MOCA’s open call initiative, designed to cast a wider net in the art community.

The artist says he wants visitors to appreciate the island’s culture minus the scariness aspect that some attach to Haitian art.

“I want it to be a very beautiful and intriguing part of Haitian culture on public display in a Haitian neighborhood,” says Mitchell. “There is so much beauty that comes out of Haiti – I wanted to show that side.”

WHAT: “Play-House” and “Les Sirènes“

WHEN:  “Les Sirènes”  is on display through Sunday, Sept. 8; “Play-House” is on display through Sunday, Nov. 17 

WHERE: Paradise Courtyard, and Fountain, outdoors at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami

COST:  Free

INFORMATION: 305-893-6211 or mocanomi.org

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