Ayiti en Bleu: The Songbird Sings a Reverie of Liberation

Medium: Porcelain Ceramic
Dimensions: 8 ¾" × 9" × 7"
Year: 2025
Collection: Chitra Collection

This teapot serves as a vessel of memory, culture, and resistance, reflecting Haiti’s entanglement with French colonial rule. Drawing from the opulence of the Rococo era—an aesthetic tied to excess and aristocratic privilege—this work reclaims that decorative language to examine the power structures that shaped the Caribbean.

The vibrant blue exterior, adorned with botanical motifs, speaks to the region’s lush landscapes and the resilience of its people. Subtle red details and the deep crimson interior symbolize the bloodshed and sacrifice of those who labored under colonial expansion. Tea, a commodity central to European economies, represents both exploitation and resistance—while plantations reinforced oppressive systems, tea culture also became a space for knowledge-sharing and cultural preservation among the enslaved.

Perched atop the teapot, a bird symbolizes flight and freedom—a testament to Haiti’s revolutionary triumph and enduring fight for justice. The fusion of Caribbean flora, French aesthetics, and symbolic color invites reflection on migration, labor, and adaptation, revealing how histories of struggle continue to shape the Haitian and Caribbean diasporic experience. Beneath beauty and refinement lies a deeper, untold history—one of suffering, resilience, and revolution.