1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
Created for a Cigar Box Contest, an 1890s New Orleans Vodou parlor in the French Quarter from which a traditional mambo (priestess) sells supplies and performs ceremonies for the local Vodou community. Almost everything in this scene was handmade.
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
The French doors with old-fashioned cut-glass knobs look out on a busy street scene. The shop is well-stocked with ritual paraphernalia, lwa banners, altar supplies and herbs. The border around the edges of the box is a traditional veve for Vodou drums.
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
In addition to her ritual duties the mambo has a regular clientele for whom she reads fortunes, creates love potions, and contacts the dearly departed. She also maintains altars dedicated to her protective lwa. 
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
The shelves are filled with miniature gris-gris bags and tiny poupées (aka poppets, or Vodou dolls); handsculpted skulls and candleholders, herbs, and potions.
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
Popular fortune-telling methods include reading tea leaves and cards. Like most card-readers in the Americas at the time, she uses regular playing cards. The deck on the table is a miniature reproduction of Le Jeu de Louis XV, a beautiful French deck published by Grimaud in 1890s.
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
An elaborate gold-framed portrait of the revered New Orleans Vodou queen Marie Laveau overlooks the altars. A central ancestral altar is flanked by those dedicated to specific lwa, adorned with veves and offerings particular to each.
1890s New Orleans Vodou Shop
2004 | Mixed Media | 15" x 4" (open)
Offerings to the Ghedes include handsculpted skulls, a silver Celtic cross and a cross made from elm twigs tied with purple thread, French rum from Martinique, hot red peppers, and roasted peanuts.
