Pierrot Barra

Pierrot Barra (1942–1999) was a Haitian Vodou artist and priest, who was president of a Bizango society. With his wife Marie Cassaise, he worked from the Iron Market of Port-au-Prince, where he made "Vodou repositories from toys, fabric, glass, sequins, goats' horns, rosaries, costume jewelry, compact mirrors, Christmas ornaments, crucifixes, and other discarded materials." His Afro-Cuban dolls sold well, bought by locals to protect themselves. He often used discarded American toys and dolls as the basis of his works, embellishing them with "charms, glitter, sequins, beads, and crosses that were originally intended for altars". Nottingham Contemporary art centre contains several of his works.