Voodoo Puts the Skull in These Dark Sculptures

Haitian Vodou gets cast in a new light by London-based artist Pierre Santos.

October 5, 2016, 2:30pm

Images courtesy of the artist

Due to popular Hollywood portrayals, Voodoo, to most, is a dark and bizarre religion saturated by usage of dolls and harmful spells to hurt those you hate. It regularly misunderstood and even more uncommon—an illustrious reputation makes it difficult to learn its many truths.

With a focus on creating artwork based around rebirth and spiritual life, London-based artist and sculptor Pierre Santos makes a series of cryptic Vodou (also spelled Voodoo, Voudou, Vodun, or French Vaudou) sculptures that look like an amalgamation of Ents and Pan’s Labyrinth characters. His Old Relics series is inspired by the religious practice born in Africa, grown in the Caribbean, and forcibly erased in the Western. Santos creates his dark, enigmatic figures “using texture references ranging from tree bark to crustaceans creating macabre undertones which creates for a disturbing set of tensions within the piece(s).”

On his website, Santos gives small descriptions to his Old Relics series. Each of these frightening creatures is a specific representative of Haitian Vodou culture. Check out the images below, and head over to his site to learn more.