Cecilia Vicuña: Architect of the Unimaginable

The Shamanic Artist: Unraveling the Threads of Life

Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña embodies the spirit of a shaman, weaving universal forces into her creations like a healer of the cosmos. Her art is an ecstatic pursuit, a profound connection to the universe's whispering suggestions. Her hands are but conduits for a creative spark that defies the encroaching darkness.

At Lehmann Maupin New York, her latest exhibition, "La Migranta Blue Nipple," transports visitors into a universe of condensed energy. It is a tapestry woven from forms and symbols, culled from nature and guided by her lifelong surrender to the collective unconscious. Vicuña taps into an unseen order that governs all existence, transforming art-making into a sacred act.

Weaving Connections: Threads that Bind

Weaving lies at the core of Vicuña's practice, most powerfully embodied by the quipu, an ancient Andean communication system. This technology, represented throughout the exhibition, reveals textiles' deep entanglement with civilization. They are secret codes and unifying bonds that have connected communities across cultures and epochs. "The thread is associated with both death and the beginning of life," Vicuña explains. "The idea of wrapping the dead in woven mats or textiles is an ancient myth. It's about the secret link between the thread of life, the thread of water, and the thread of any kind of fiber with a vegetal or animal nature."

Matrix of Memory: Weaving from the Past

Vicuña revives traditional weaving techniques, linking generations of women through matriarchal lineage. Through her practice, she transforms rituals and spiritual aspects of weaving into tools for community building and reconnection. Vicuña's encounter with the quipu in a book proved transformative, calling her to preserve and transmit this ancient art form. "I realized that I was doing it consistently. I didn't choose it or set out in a program, I just began being part of quipu. The quipu embraced and adopted me."

Fragile Art: Impermanence and the Embrace of Essence

Arte Precario (precarious art) underpins all of Vicuña's creations. Embracing the fragility of existence, it invites artists to surrender to the universe and create with minimal objects. This acceptance of precariousness echoes her life's events and shapes her art. Many of her early works were lost or destroyed due to the migrations that marked her life's journey. Timelessness and materiality are gracefully interwoven in her sculptures and installations.

NAUFraga: A Monument to Fragility

In the monumental installation NAUFraga, fragments of nature and human artifacts are suspended in space, entangled with the threads of a quipu. It is a haunting tableau of civilization's ruins, critiquing the relentless exploitation of the earth and sea. "NAUFraga reflects our failure to care for our planet," a poem declares, a poignant reflection on memory, loss, and environmental stewardship.

Nature as Collaborator: The Rhythms and Cycles of Existence

Vicuña seeks to co-create with nature, treating it as a guide. Through nature's rhythms, she uncovers the essence of human creation and art—a delicate balance within the secret order of creation and destruction. A simple stick planted into the sand becomes the foundation of her artistic practice. "It was an offering to the sea," she recalls. "The waves erased it, and in that moment, the whole system was born complete."

Symbols of Timelessness: A Language of the Unconscious

Vicuña's art is a celebration of the unexpected, epiphanic revelations where human creativity aligns with a deeper universal order. Symbols resonate through a collective unconscious, reemerging through the imagination. Even her choice of materials—often fragments of discarded objects—is intuitive. "The symbol wants to be simple. You let it because it's in our nature to symbolize," she says.

Orixás: Resonances of Deities

Orixás, deities from the Yoruba religion, play a significant role in Vicuña's work. These female figures, connected to natural elements, share a deep connection to Indigenous mythologies and ancestral traditions. "They wanted to stay together without interference," Vicuña says, describing the placement of these figures.

La Migranta Blue Nipple: A Call for Reconnection

The exhibition takes its title from a lone mermaid figure, a timeless symbol of vitality and transformation. It simultaneously captures Vicuña's lifelong displacement and her ultimate reconnection with her roots. It is a broader call for reconnection—not just with the land, but with the essence of migratory bodies and subjects.

A Call to Beauty: Indigenous Knowledge and Human Awakening

In the face of encroaching darkness, Vicuña sees hope in the reawakening of human awareness. She cites the embrace of alternative knowledge and reconnection with spiritual realms as signs of this awakening. "I'm a person of the '60s, and this was a time of great awakening," she says. "We need to turn to Indigenous knowledge and messages to counteract the environmental and societal crises deepening around us."

Vicuña's art serves as a call to action, urging us to approach the field of beauty instead of the field of violence. The poem Prayer for the Rebirth of Peace in Lands eloquently encapsulates this urgent message.

Cecilia Vicuña: "La Migranta Blue Nipple" is on view at Lehmann Maupin in New York through January 11, 2025.