Without Childhood Photos, a Haitian American Artist Spends a Decade Imagining Her Family Archive
Hyphenated: Exploring Identity Through the Lens of Memory
Without childhood photos a Haitian American – CNN Style’s Hyphenated series delves into the intricate tapestry of identity among minorities in the United States. The narrative of Widline Cadet, a Haitian-American artist, exemplifies this exploration. Born in Haiti, she was separated from her mother at the age of four when the latter moved to New York to seek a better life for her family. Cadet, her father, and older sister stayed behind in Thomassin, eventually reuniting with her in the city. During the six-year absence, her father navigated the cross-border journey, carrying a limited collection of photographs that served as fleeting links between the two parts of their family. These images not only revealed the arrival of a new baby sister in New York City’s Hamilton Heights but also highlighted the gaps in their shared visual history.
Reconnecting Through Fragments
At ten, Cadet reunited with her mother in New York, yet the absence of photographs from her early years left her with a fragmented sense of her family’s past. As she matured, she began to realize the depth of her mother’s mystery—how little she knew about her childhood or the ancestral threads connecting them. Her mother, in turn, lacked a photograph of her own mother, and memories of the past seemed to dissolve with each passing year. This void inspired Cadet to embark on a creative mission: to reconstruct her family’s visual narrative over nearly a decade, blending reality and imagination to bridge the gap between what was lost and what could be imagined.
Now, her work transcends traditional photography, evolving into a multi-generational “living archive.” Through a combination of photographs, video, sound, and sculpture, Cadet interrogates the dynamics of memory, the nuances of diasporic identity, and the emotional weight of absence. Her pieces often evoke a sense of displacement, as if the viewer is stepping into the quiet spaces of her mind. The recent exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, titled Currents 40: Widline Cadet, showcases the culmination of this labor, presenting a vivid interplay of media that invites reflection on both personal and collective histories.
Imagined Realities in Art
Cadet’s creative process is as much about storytelling as it is about visual composition. “Something happened in the process of me becoming a photographer that made me really think about these images and the roles they play in our lives,” she explained during an interview at the exhibition’s opening. Her work, while deeply rooted in her own experience, resonates with universal themes of connection and disconnection. The gallery spaces feel like a journey through her thoughts, where each element—whether a photograph, a sculpture, or a video—carries the weight of memory and the echoes of the past.
She often blurs the line between the real and the imagined, weaving together fragmented recollections and new narratives. “When I started making the work, I thought broadly about creating an archive—more so in the strict sense of taking pictures for the purpose of being archived,” she noted. Yet, as the project progressed, her approach became more fluid and imaginative. This evolution is evident in her use of unconventional techniques, such as folding prints into gallery walls or framing images within portal-like half-circle structures. These frames, reminiscent of windows from her grandparents’ photographs, create a sense of looking inward and outward simultaneously.
Memory as a Medium
Cadet’s art challenges the notion of memory as a fixed entity. Her photographs, often grainy and evocative, are layered with video and sound, transforming static images into dynamic experiences. In one striking piece, she recreated a photograph of her mother cradling her newborn sister—a scene she hadn’t seen until she began her quest for visual records. The image, rendered in a soft, dreamlike quality, feels like a glimpse into an alternate reality, where the past and present merge seamlessly. “Even a photo of my mother holding her baby sister—something I hadn’t witnessed until I started searching for images—has a surreal, almost poetic edge,” she reflected. The piece is titled I put all my hopes on you, and it is displayed as a wall-spanning altarpiece, surrounded by rows of vibrant aloe plant sculptures. These elements symbolize growth, resilience, and the nurturing of memories in the absence of tangible records.
The absence of Haiti in her early life is a central motif in her work. While only a few archival images and video clips reference the country, its cultural essence permeates her art. She finds echoes of Haiti in the florals and architectural styles of Los Angeles, where she relocated three years ago. The city’s visual landscape, she notes, holds a paradoxical familiarity—both distant and intimate. This duality is mirrored in her use of fabrics, such as a set of gingham dresses that resemble her school uniform. These garments, captured in a portrait of two girls, evoke a sense of shared history while also highlighting the disparities between her Haitian heritage and her American upbringing.
A Curator’s Perspective
“She’s very deeply excavating her own archive, and there’s something about that specificity, almost paradoxically, that makes it more relatable to a lot of people,” said Kristen Gaylord, the exhibition’s curator. “The stories she tells about her family make visitors think about their own stories from their own families, and the relationships they have.”
Gaylord’s insight underscores the universality of Cadet’s exploration. While her work is deeply personal, it speaks to broader experiences of displacement, cultural memory, and the search for belonging. The exhibition, spread across spacious galleries, allows visitors to immerse themselves in her visual world, where the past is not just recalled but reimagined. This interplay of reality and fiction invites questions about the nature of identity and the role of art in preserving it.
The Weight of Absence
Cadet’s archive is not just a collection of images but a testament to the emotional labor of reconstructing history. The absence of photographs from her childhood is a recurring theme, yet this lack becomes a source of creative vitality. She described the process as a dialogue between what was and what could be, where each piece serves as a bridge between the gaps. “The photographs I’ve made to fill those gaps feel like the soft edges of a dream,” she said. This metaphor captures the essence of her work—a blend of reality and imagination that reflects the fluidity of memory.
As her project evolves, Cadet continues to refine her approach, drawing from both personal and collective experiences. The exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, her largest presentation to date, is a culmination of this journey. It not only showcases her artistic vision but also serves as a platform for conversations about diasporic identity and the power of art to reclaim lost narratives. Through her work, Widline Cadet transforms the void of absence into a space of possibility, proving that even the most elusive memories can be made visible. Her archive, once a personal endeavor, now resonates with a wider audience, offering a lens through which to view the complexities of heritage, displacement, and belonging.
