All queens and me, 2026, fang mask, copper-plated steel, hair, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls, 103 x 61 x 13.5 inches
In Meris's exhibition Assotto:ottoossA, honoring fellow Haitian-born poet and AIDS activist Assotto Saint, he exhibited All queens and me (2026). Saint, who was born Yves Francis Lubin, renamed himself to Assotto Saint, honoring the Assotto drum used to initiate the Haitian War of Independence against France in 1804 and Toussaint L'ouverture, the founding father of Ayiti, the world's first Black republic.
All queens and me (2026) celebrates Assotto Saint as a multifaceted individual who existed beyond the confines of binary gendering while also honoring his Pan-African identity. Saint who succumbed to AIDS related complications in 1994, wrote the poem 'Heart and Soul'which became the interlocutor in Meris’s African Mask series. Saint represents a historical figure who stood at the intersection of Blackness, queerness, and immigrant equity and, in many ways becomes a reflection of Meris. In All queens and me (2026), the adinkra symbol dwennimmen or “ram’s horn” is incorporated into this installation--symbolizing strength and humility.
All queens and me (2026) burrows the visual repertoire of Assotto Saint, embodying the masculine divine feminine and a gender that becomes both uniquely Saint's and Meris's.
All queens and me (2026) celebrates Assotto Saint as a multifaceted individual who existed beyond the confines of binary gendering while also honoring his Pan-African identity. Saint who succumbed to AIDS related complications in 1994, wrote the poem 'Heart and Soul'which became the interlocutor in Meris’s African Mask series. Saint represents a historical figure who stood at the intersection of Blackness, queerness, and immigrant equity and, in many ways becomes a reflection of Meris. In All queens and me (2026), the adinkra symbol dwennimmen or “ram’s horn” is incorporated into this installation--symbolizing strength and humility.
All queens and me (2026) burrows the visual repertoire of Assotto Saint, embodying the masculine divine feminine and a gender that becomes both uniquely Saint's and Meris's.
All queens and me, 2026, fang mask, copper-plated steel, hair, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls, 103 x 61 x 13.5 inches
X, 2026, fang, copper-plated steel, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls, 52 x 52 x 7 inches
X, 2026, fang, copper-plated steel, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls, 52 x 52 x 7 inc
Heart and Soul, copper-plated steel, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls, 58.5 x 44 x 5 inches
Heart and Soul (2026) is an eponymous poem by Assotto Saint written in honor of his contemporary, Essex Hemphill in Saint's collection of poems Sacred Spells. Saint speaks of his queerness and his Blackness as symbols of pride, as symbols of futurity. In this work I use the sacred symbol of Sankofa, a mythical bird derived from the Akan people said to fly with its head tilted towards its tail with an egg in its mouth, ever conscious of the past while moving towards the future.
Heart and Soul, copper-plated steel, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls, 58.5 x 44 x 5 inches
She does hard things, 2026, duafe mask, copper-plated steel, hardware, bathed pearls, pearls