Widline Cadet and the Metamorphosis of Dusk

Dusk has a strange way of drawing us into mystery. Neither day nor night, it serves as a bridge between light and darkness; some, caught in this moment of passage, may feel uneasy, not yet primed to embrace a nocturnal state. There are times, however, depending on the day, when slipping into night can carry a person into bliss.

Unlike Widline Cadet’s depictions of family, friends or herself, Manyen Distans (Touching Distance) (2023) leaves a lot unsaid. Distant objects are only half-seen and figures pulse through the frame. Two people, dressed in long white garments, glide across a lush field. Thick foliage spills into the foreground. Beyond these two is a barely visible body of water beyond and a distant sunset, glowing reddish. One person is focused, looking ahead with their head slightly bowed. The other seems to be glancing at the camera. Neither person’s features are clear. Instead, the details of their faces are hidden because their expressions and bodies are overexposed.

Cadet is an artist who uncovers the unseen. Born in Pétion-Ville, Haiti, and partly raised in New York City, she has developed a keen ability to subtly emphasize the vitality of African diasporic cartographies through surreal prints. I can’t help but think that the two figures in Manyen Distans evoke the lougarou of Haitian culture: a werewolf-like shapeshifter. Borrowing from the French loup-garou (werewolf), the Haitian version can resemble anyone and everyone but begins to change form at dusk – exactly the time in which Cadet has chosen to suspend the viewer. Mute about its nocturnal intentions, the lougarou’s daily practices – often roaming swamps and woodlands to seek vengeance against the sinful, or to protect a single mother – exist on a spectrum.

Cadet, currently based in Los Angeles, not only romanticizes her native Haiti but is captivated by the country’s mysterious energy. The minimalist scene of Manyen Distans is caked with subtlety; the blank silhouettes constitute Haiti’s energy, splendidly sacrilegious and unhurried. When dusk turns to night, a person might reach for the faint light on the horizon. But the unrestrained power of Manyen Distans lies in its ambiguity about what might unravel during the fleeting moments of half-light: will we be yoked by a grey-souled spirit or guided by a serene goddess?

This article first appeared in frieze issue 256 with the headline ‘When Dusk Turns to Night’

Widline Cadet is part of ‘Made in L.A. 2025’ at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, until 1 March 

^{Main image: Widline Cadet, Manyen distans (Touching Distance) (detail), 2023, archival inkjet print, 102 × 127 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Nazarian / Curcio}