Artist Spotlight: Tessa Mars
Identity, history, emigration, and womanhood are some of the prevalent themes in works by Tessa Mars. The Haitian visual artist uses her work to investigate a variety of topics: the gritty and playful. Daughter of acclaimed Hatian poet and novelist, Kettly Mars, and the great granddaughter of the multi-hyphenate Jean Price-Mars, Tessa is a proud Haitian and is unafraid to address socio-political issues that many tend to shy away from.
During her 2015 residency at Alice Yard, Trinidad, she explored ideas of what it would mean to be a hero in today’s Haiti. As a result, Tessa created a pop-up card of Jean Jacques Dessalines and placed her face over his. This was the birth of Tessalines.
Nou la ansanm, 2019.
“Tessalines is an alter ego, a fusion of myself and characteristics of the father of the Haitian revolution, Dessalines. So she is about finding my hero, my revolutionary side, and trying to place myself in Haitian history.”
Untitled, Praying for the visa series, 2019.
