Christopher Martin Ayida Weddo, 2018

31 x 22 inches

Christopher Martin’s Ayida Weddo (2018) is a contemplative and spiritually charged work that draws upon the artist’s fascination with mythology, symbolism, and transcendence. Executed in his signature minimalist style on a linen scroll, the piece takes its title from Ayida Weddo, the rainbow serpent goddess of Haitian Vodou — a deity associated with fertility, balance, and the unity between earth and sky.

Martin distills this mythic essence into a composition of refined simplicity. His use of crisp, deliberate linework and open white space evokes a meditative calm, allowing the form to breathe and resonate beyond its materiality. As with much of Martin’s 2018 scroll series, the piece functions as both an image and an invocation — a visual prayer exploring the relationship between the physical and the metaphysical.

The scroll format, traditionally linked to sacred texts and contemplative practice, underscores the work’s devotional tone. Rather than depict the goddess literally, Martin channels her presence through abstraction and rhythm, inviting viewers to encounter the divine through perception rather than representation. The result is an image that vibrates with quiet spiritual energy — a meeting point of ancient wisdom and contemporary restraint.

In Ayida Weddo, Martin continues his dialogue between stillness and movement, material and immaterial. The work exemplifies his ongoing pursuit of art as a meditative act — one that bridges myth and modernity, gesture and silence, human inquiry and cosmic order.