Study of Native Colombian Tribes: Art as a Means of Inspiration

Sofía Fernandez Echeverri Author

04/05/2021 Added

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Study of Native Colombian Tribes: Art as a Means of Inspiration. Creative Research

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[00:00:01.120]Hello everyone,
[00:00:01.953]my name is Sofia Fernandez Echeverri
[00:00:03.120]and today I'm gonna share with you
[00:00:04.840]my research Study of Native Colombian Tribes:
[00:00:07.260]Art as a Means of Inspiration.
[00:00:09.373]This research examines Latin American art
[00:00:11.424]particularly Indigenous Colombian art,
[00:00:13.710]as source of inspiration for the creation
[00:00:15.610]of a series of artworks.
[00:00:17.350]It considers two Colombian tribes,
[00:00:18.944]Wayuu and Okaina,
[00:00:19.980]emphasizing on these tribes'
[00:00:21.220]ancestry, history, purpose, and positions
[00:00:23.430]with the objective of giving them
[00:00:24.480]a voice in the community
[00:00:26.060]where they are underrepresented and unknown.
[00:00:27.880]This research provides a critical look
[00:00:29.970]into the tribe's relations and artistic techniques
[00:00:32.110]through the creation of a variety of paintings,
[00:00:33.810]drawings, and prints.
[00:00:35.090]The body of work created through this research
[00:00:36.900]concentrates in textures and patterns
[00:00:38.460]from the specific tribes,
[00:00:39.656]analyzing how pattern textiles can be abstracted
[00:00:42.210]and understood as well.
[00:00:43.800]These research questions:
[00:00:45.010]How does one gain inspiration
[00:00:46.250]from cultural backgrounds?
[00:00:47.490]In what ways does the artwork
[00:00:48.640]created by Native tribes in Colombia
[00:00:50.410]represent the country's history
[00:00:51.720]and characteristics?
[00:00:53.050]What is the purpose of each symbol
[00:00:54.530]used in the tribe's artwork?
[00:00:56.070]How does one communicate their own culture
[00:00:57.660]effectively through artwork?
[00:00:59.360]What aspects of one's culture are important
[00:01:01.190]for the audience?
[00:01:02.023]And what is the importance
[00:01:02.965]of communicating my own culture
[00:01:04.340]to a culture not acquainted with it?
[00:01:06.529]Pattern textiles have existed in distinct ways
[00:01:08.511]across culture and throughout history.
[00:01:10.480]They can be identifiers in knowing
[00:01:11.930]someone's culture and beliefs.
[00:01:13.190]For the tribes Wayuu and Okaina, this is especially true
[00:01:15.390]because these tribes have used
[00:01:16.990]special techniques and patterns
[00:01:18.261]in decorations of textiles,
[00:01:19.577]that identify their own culture.
[00:01:21.760]The end of this research project was
[00:01:23.210]to find a way to showcase textiles
[00:01:24.810]through a variety of techniques and materials.
[00:01:26.880]Creating as a product a finalized work of art.
[00:01:29.280]The best way to fulfill this objective
[00:01:30.960]was the use of textile patterns,
[00:01:32.414]abstractive shapes and forms,
[00:01:33.740]where they could be either recognizable or not
[00:01:35.490]depending on the piece's objective.
[00:01:37.690]Patterned artworks introduces the idea
[00:01:39.500]of rhythm, symmetry, repetition and dimension,
[00:01:41.990]which many of these native Colombian tribes
[00:01:43.910]used in their handicrafts and art.
[00:01:45.900]This can be seen in many types of textiles
[00:01:47.630]such as knitted, woven, and braided.
[00:01:49.703]As background to this work
[00:01:51.350]besides being inspired by these indigenous tribes
[00:01:53.260]a big inspiration was a feminist movement
[00:01:54.980]of pattern decoration from the 1970s.
[00:01:57.466]The pattern decoration movement
[00:01:59.040]endorsed a lively and experimental
[00:02:00.470]approach to art making.
[00:02:01.990]It went places where according to High Art,
[00:02:04.040]it was not supposed to go,
[00:02:05.720]taking as subject matter
[00:02:06.940]places and objects of daily life use
[00:02:08.850]such as kitchen, carpet shops, fabrics, bedrooms, et cetera.
[00:02:12.800]Artists, such as Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff,
[00:02:14.970]Miriam Schapiro, and Ned Smyth
[00:02:16.340]initiated this movement by creating work
[00:02:18.230]related to their personal
[00:02:19.220]surroundings and perspective.
[00:02:21.070]The artwork created
[00:02:21.903]as a result from this research,
[00:02:23.350]are representation of cultural objects,
[00:02:25.210]surroundings, and ideas.
[00:02:26.690]The aim of the work is to contribute
[00:02:27.850]to their community's diversity and knowledge
[00:02:28.737]but also to introduce a body of work
[00:02:31.170]with a subject matter that is
[00:02:32.320]not commonly considered important,
[00:02:33.658]or that belongs to a higher category.
[00:02:36.210]The use of objects and textiles
[00:02:37.630]from indigenous tribes inspiration
[00:02:39.090]makes us a dovetail
[00:02:39.990]with the Pattern and Decoration Movement.
[00:02:42.220]The art itself is not meant to be looked at
[00:02:43.960]as a beautiful object,
[00:02:45.340]or imply to glance at its surface.
[00:02:47.370]But it's meant to be scanned and analyzed
[00:02:48.600]in terms of intention,
[00:02:52.340]and meaning.
[00:02:53.440]Also, as background I've researched
[00:02:55.160]how indigenous art has influenced
[00:02:56.720]contemporary Latin American art,
[00:02:57.667]and the complicated relationships created with this.
[00:03:00.650]In indigenous art in contemporary Latin American art
[00:03:03.450]has always been considered primitive,
[00:03:05.320]the complex relationship between primitivism and art
[00:03:07.770]has been based on the idea of the otherness.
[00:03:10.530]Otherness in this context can be seen
[00:03:12.160]as a quality or fact of being different
[00:03:13.575]from what is considered the dominant group,
[00:03:15.830]in this case, Western culture.
[00:03:17.980]In doing so, marginalized indigenous cultures
[00:03:19.884]were brought before boys
[00:03:21.220]and the social political and religious world.
[00:03:23.205]It can be said that this dualism started
[00:03:25.464]with the way Europe represented the New World
[00:03:27.365]in their museums and collections.
[00:03:28.904]These appropriations strongly determine
[00:03:31.240]how the world was supposed to be seen
[00:03:32.730]through the eyes of Western civilization,
[00:03:34.390]causing artists at the time
[00:03:35.570]to reproduce these descriptions and perspectives.
[00:03:38.780]This categorization and stereotypes
[00:03:40.650]perpetuate an image that was recreated frequently
[00:03:42.037]by the dominant culture,
[00:03:44.030]and through art in Latin America.
[00:03:45.517]As a result, the primitive influenced
[00:03:47.730]aspiring artists in Latin America
[00:03:49.210]to start questioning Latin American identity
[00:03:51.520]outside the boundaries of what was said
[00:03:53.300]by the Western culture.
[00:03:54.920]The shift from reproducing European identity
[00:03:57.190]to a collective desire
[00:03:58.260]of finding the Latin American identity
[00:04:00.330]based on different centralization,
[00:04:01.850]caused the creation of movements such as
[00:04:03.530]magical realism, and a hybridity
[00:04:05.473]that that characterizes
[00:04:06.820]and changes Latin American discourses.
[00:04:09.080]It can be said that indigenous characteristics
[00:04:10.922]and primitivist inspiration
[00:04:12.700]united Latin American art and differentiated it
[00:04:15.050]from European art.
[00:04:16.330]Having the concept of otherness
[00:04:17.730]be transformed into a concept
[00:04:18.920]that included uniqueness and similarity.
[00:04:21.300]Therefore the art pieces inspiring this research
[00:04:23.214]are the tribes Wayuu and Okaina,
[00:04:25.080]Touching the indigenous past and present,
[00:04:26.730]and how it is understood by people who are
[00:04:28.430]immersed in the Western culture.
[00:04:30.851]The Wayuu are an indigenous Colombian tribe
[00:04:32.728]located in the north part of Colombia and Venezuela,
[00:04:35.682]in the Guajira peninsula.
[00:04:36.520]The Mochila, similar object to a handbag,
[00:04:39.020]is a representation of many different
[00:04:39.853]Colombian indigenous tribes.
[00:04:42.430]It identifies them and embodies a symbol of life,
[00:04:44.670]due to the subjects having carried
[00:04:46.230]all the adversity and happiness
[00:04:47.670]these communities have endured.
[00:04:49.330]One of the main interests of
[00:04:50.490]this research in the Wayuu bag
[00:04:51.890]is it's direct relationship to women,
[00:04:53.343]as well as how it is used as a symbol
[00:04:55.069]of the matriarchal structure and society
[00:04:57.362]inside the Wayuu community.
[00:04:58.950]It is an object that displays an importance
[00:05:01.050]to a historically underrepresented gender
[00:05:02.970]through the beauty of pattern and color.
[00:05:05.429]The Wayuu fabrics are decorated with colorful images
[00:05:07.920]Kanas, which is the images of this life
[00:05:09.790]which name, situations, and objects
[00:05:12.740]of the Wayuu daily routine,
[00:05:13.714]their natural environment, and their worldview.
[00:05:16.923]The following pieces were created
[00:05:19.040]with the objective of acknowledging the Wayuu
[00:05:20.720]as well as celebrating their culture
[00:05:22.320]within the personal memories of the artists.
[00:05:24.780]Each piece was created
[00:05:25.630]with inspiration of personally owned Mochilas,
[00:05:27.510]as well as the research of patterns and color
[00:05:29.062]related to the what the Wayuu.
[00:05:30.940]The following is the artworks inspired
[00:05:33.033]by this research and the Wayuu Mochila.
[00:05:36.280]The Okaina are an indigenous community
[00:05:38.265]located in the Amazon region
[00:05:39.591]in the South of Colombia.
[00:05:40.670]They shared this location
[00:05:41.770]with a variety of indigenous communities,
[00:05:43.560]causing them to share cultural aspects
[00:05:45.460]as well as interacting through merchants and ceremonies.
[00:05:48.120]They create objects such as baskets,
[00:05:49.648]chinchorros and handbags,
[00:05:50.560]where they, what they weave creates
[00:05:52.640]the world around them.
[00:05:53.960]Through it- they weave history and memory
[00:05:56.060]through their culture.
[00:05:57.180]They main material used
[00:05:58.013]for these weavings is called Fique.
[00:06:00.020]It gets cultivated in the Andes,
[00:06:01.387]especially in Antioquia and Huila and Cauca
[00:06:02.760]It is considered one of the most important fibers
[00:06:06.150]for indigenous tribes in Columbia.
[00:06:07.863]The following pieces are abstractions
[00:06:10.090]of the material, as well as
[00:06:11.860]the objects the Okaina create
[00:06:13.170]and use in their daily life.
[00:06:15.587]Here are some drawings and paintings
[00:06:17.560]inspired by the material.
[00:06:20.250]As a conclusion to this research, we can see
[00:06:22.420]that the indigenous and the primitive
[00:06:23.930]have always been an essential part
[00:06:25.300]for the creation of art
[00:06:26.133]based in Latin American culture and identity.
[00:06:27.900]Within my work, this is not exception.
[00:06:30.620]Looking towards the indigenous tribes, Okaina and Wayuu
[00:06:32.930]as a way of celebrating and acknowledging culture
[00:06:34.599]has been a way to learn about my roots,
[00:06:36.870]as well as the cultural past of my home country.
[00:06:39.360]The various techniques and objects
[00:06:40.650]used within these communities
[00:06:41.810]is just a small portion
[00:06:42.820]of what each one has to offer.
[00:06:45.000]Having my work in context
[00:06:46.280]with the Pattern and Decoration art movement
[00:06:47.536]allows the pieces to interact
[00:06:48.902]with the current cultural context
[00:06:50.225]in the United States.
[00:06:52.000]It generates a relationship
[00:06:53.380]between what this movement stands for
[00:06:55.310]and how indigenous art has been seen throughout time:
[00:06:57.515]as a craft instead of an actual High Art piece.
[00:07:00.395]The work is created through abstractions
[00:07:02.620]and of shapes and colors,
[00:07:04.260]like the work within the Pattern and Decoration movement,
[00:07:06.526]with the objective of communicating
[00:07:08.610]cultural significance and memory
[00:07:10.520]within celebrating Colombian and indigenous culture.
[00:07:13.265]The research allowed me to generate work
[00:07:14.988]that opens the artist to questions such as
[00:07:16.825]how does one communicate their own culture
[00:07:18.640]effectively through artwork?
[00:07:20.280]What aspects of one's culture are important
[00:07:21.810]for the audience, as well as asking myself
[00:07:24.197]how to gain inspiration from a culture,
[00:07:25.990]and not appropriate it's cultural aspects.
[00:07:28.090]My meaning was to celebrate and acknowledge
[00:07:29.810]indigenous communities.
[00:07:31.360]When asking questions such as,
[00:07:32.590]In what ways is the work created
[00:07:34.150]by native tribes in Colombia represent
[00:07:36.000]the country's history and characteristics?
[00:07:37.666]It was important to research
[00:07:39.000]about the influence of indigenous tribes
[00:07:40.510]in Latin American art
[00:07:41.800]to see how they have been used
[00:07:42.880]as a way to express history and culture.
[00:07:45.160]It can be said that indigenous characteristics
[00:07:46.060]have produced inspiration
[00:07:48.340]uniting Latin American art and differentiating it
[00:07:50.660]from European art.
[00:07:52.030]The concept of otherness that describes
[00:07:53.551]indigenous tribes ultimately transforms
[00:07:55.518]into unique and singular forms of visual expression.
[00:07:58.436]The indigenous is part
[00:07:59.317]of the cultural past and present
[00:08:00.990]of Latin America,
[00:08:01.823]and there are pieces inspired by this research,
[00:08:03.930]and the tribes Wayuu and Okaina,
[00:08:05.142]touches history and how it is understood
[00:08:06.970]by people who are immersed the Western culture.
[00:08:09.179]It is my hope that this work
[00:08:10.696]opens the viewer to these questions,
[00:08:13.000]generate a dialogue about culture,
[00:08:14.820]pattern, and history.
[00:08:16.260]Thank you.

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Study of Native Colombian Tribes: Art as a Means of Inspiration

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