Hyundai Commission: Cecilia Vicuña

Born and raised in Santiago, Vicuña went into exile during the early 1970s after the violent military coup against former Chilean President Salvador Allende. This sense of impermanence, and a desire to preserve and pay tribute to the country’s indigenous history and culture have characterised her career, spanning half a century. 

Vicuña’s ephemeral and environmentally conscious work combines the tactile ritual of weaving with assemblage, poetry, performance, and painting. Her creations include the ongoing series Precarios, tiny sculptures combining feathers, stone, plastic, wood, wire, shells, cloth and other human-made detritus, and Quipus, hanging textile installations which draw on an ancient Andean method of communication through knotting-coloured strings.

More info: HERE

Picture: Cecilia Vicuña, Quipu Viscera, 2017, unspun, wool, site-specific installation dimensions variable. © Cecilia Vicuña and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London