Reencounter – 2019
Recorrido textil: espacios cromáticos, paisaje y memoria
Recorrido textil: espacios cromáticos, paisaje y memoria
TACNA ARICA. ca. 1958. Lana de vicuña, algodón. Vicuña wool, cotton.23,5 x 14,5 cm. Colección privada.
Textile Journeys: Chromatic Spaces, Landscape, and Memory
In 1957, Sheila Hicks traveled from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego. She traversed Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile (1957-1959). On this journey through the Andes, she learned from the local weavers how to spin the wool and weave, and then continued in her own direction. It was there that she began to create her minimes, small weavings that were born as studies of ancestral pre-Columbian techniques, but that evolved into aesthetic enquiries.
These minimes are atmospheric artworks, aesthetics, chromatic, and emotional spaces. They embody Hicks’ understanding and experimentations with materials and structures, always in weavings of four finished selvedges, a technique mastered by the ancient Andean weavers, which renders the works structurally self-contained so nothing can be taken away. Tracing landscapes, the artist describes the Andes not only in the titles of her artworks but also through their colors and textures. Thus, imbuing them with a sense of the place instead of describing a figurative landscape.