Poema al tejido // Press Release

TO WEAVE BLUE // POEM TO THE WEAVING

On view: January 31 – March 13, 2020
Opening reception: 5-7 pm, January 31

To weave is to place threads in tension with one another; this tension then creates fabric. And yet, culturally, we often use the words ‘cloth,’ ‘fabric,’ and ‘weaving’ to describe experiences of connection, community, and tradition. In the exhibition To Weave Blue (Poema al tejido), on view at The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art at The University of Memphis (Main Campus), six contemporary artists and poets from Guatemala present work related to weaving. They consider the production of textiles as a site for knowledge, language transmission, and cultural tradition within Maya communities. Seen together, these artists’ works in textile, video, poetry, performance, and installation encompass ways of understanding history, relationships, legacies of violence, and survival. The works also evoke non-Western models for art’s place in everyday life, offering a narrative that exists independent of Western visual art’s traditions.

Many exhibitions in the United States and abroad have presented historical work by Maya people and weavings from Maya communities within ethnographic frameworks. This reflects a U.S. view of the Maya as an extinct culture, rather than a vibrant contemporary culture with numerous communities across the Americas. In contrast, this is the first exhibition in the U.S. of contemporary Maya conceptual art. To offer an approach that resists a certain cultural and historical flattening, To Weave Blue is framed as a collaborative poem or a song written to honor weaving and its ways of describing the world: Poema al tejido is a Poem for the Weaving. The exhibition thus leaves open space between different ideas, allowing them to resonate with each other gently, rather than attempting to define contemporary Mayan practice.

As its title suggests, To Weave Blue also considers the color blue. Like ‘weaving,’ the word ‘blue’ has many meanings in the U.S., including sadness and melancholy. The music of the blues is music of deep truth, grounded in difficulty and the history of African Americans. In Guatemala, a light sky blue is the national color. A deeper blue pigment, made from the mixture of indigo, a specific clay (palygorskite), and the incense copal, has been used in Maya communities for more than a thousand years, and shows remarkable longevity, even when exposed to harsh elements. This Maya Blue is, at its chemical level, made from ingredients associated with healing; the clay mixed into it is known to cure stomach ailments while copal is often used in sacred rituals. The exhibition considers how a person’s identity in a nation might be tied to sorrow and loss; from 1960 to 1996, an internal conflict raged in Guatemala, killing more than 200,000 people. Multiple acts of genocide were committed by the national military against Maya communities. In light of this, the many shades of blue in the exhibition might also suggest a relationship not only to profound grief but also cultural methods of survival. And in this context, weavings are signs of resistance, as much as they are objects of comfort and daily use.

Hellen Ascoli’s work Tool as Place (2019) combines her research with a site-specific weaving honoring the journeys that many members of her communities have taken as they leave Guatemala. Ascoli will be on campus at University of Memphis, weaving a textile inspired by a saddle blanket, from the back of a pickup truck. In this case, the work is created in the context of constant movement; the backstrap loom itself becomes a moveable place for her. Manuel Chavajay’s work includes recent videos and a fishing net which he has reworked as a drawing of the landscape of his home: San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá. Edgar Calel includes embroidered works that reference his home and studio, Kit Kit, a social space for conversation, shared meals, and collaborative learning. His Trajes tradicionales de un kaqchikel actual (2018-19) critiques the ethnographic fascination with traditional clothing with a sly trickster turn. In her most recent body of work, sculptor and performance artist Sandra Monterroso has been researching Maya blue. Here, she includes a recent performance invoking the spirit of the water and asking it to return to damaged bodies of water. Her Points of Blue Resistance (2019) is an installation of blue knots, hanging from the ceiling. Antonio Pichillá’s works reference honored figures within his family and his community; in many of them, he connects traditional textiles with stones that have significance in local ritual. The exhibition is filled with the sound of poet Negma Coy, reading a poem written to honor the huipil (traditional woven shirt), in the Kaq’chikel language. Her voice becomes the soundscape for these meditations on what it means to weave blue.

The exhibition includes work by contemporary Maya artists Edgar Calel (Kaq’chikel Maya from Chixot – San Juan Comalapa), Manuel Chavajay (Tzu’tujil Maya from San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá), Negma Coy (Kaq’chikel Maya from Chixot – San Juan Comalapa), Sandra Monterroso (Qeq’chi’ Maya based in Guatemala City), and Antonio Pichillá (Tzu’tujil Maya from San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá). The exhibition also includes work by Guatemalan weaver, educator, sculptor, and researcher Hellen Ascoli (Guatemala City / Madison, WI). To Weave Blue (Poema al tejido) is curated by Laura August, a U.S.-born writer and curator based in Guatemala City and Houston, TX.

PROGRAMS:
Conversation with artist Hellen Ascoli and curator Laura August
Thursday, January 30, 7 pm
Art and Communication Building, Room 310

Exhibition walk-through and coffee with curator Laura August 1:30 pm, Saturday, February 1 (in Spanish and English). Artists Hellen Ascoli and Antonio Pichillá will be present to speak about their work.

GALLERY HOURS:
Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4 pm
The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art
3715 Central Avenue, Memphis, TN 38152
Art and Communication Building (Rooms 230 and 240)
The University of Memphis (Main Campus)
https://www.memphis.edu/fogelmangalleries/
For more information, please contact fogelmangalleries@memphis.edu or call 901-678-3052.