Project Review 2019 – Individual Show, Red Lady Dressed in Green
Red Lady Dressed in Green
For more than fifteen years I have worked on the theme of our link with the earth through observation of nature and registration based on the experiences of those who inhabit it. I consider that, looking for our common connections, we managed to create empathy with the other members of a common house, which is our planet.
The Peruvian Amazon, covers about 60% of our national territory, and under it, there is a red clay soil, which inspired the name of the city of Pucallpa. In Quechua: Puka Allpa; by shipibo: May Ushin. That is, ’Red Earth’
This being my place of birth, since childhood, I have forged my dialogue with the land, which revolves around the Amazon, where even the trees have a mother. There, women follow the tradition of sculpting, weaving and embroidering cotton from their forests and cultivation. Culture and traditions are often passed from generation to generation, from mothers to daughters, from grandmothers to granddaughters.
Those who walked in these spaces before me, enjoyed their beauty and wisdom, but at the same time suffered the conflicts and realities of their times.
The earth, as an element of my work, has been literally collected from the ground, where generations of ancestors have taken steps. Just as it has been the place of roads that have seen terrorism, drug trafficking, murders and disappearances and at the same time they have accompanied families, hopes and progress.
The girls who march are inspired by a photograph taken in the early 70’s, during a school march in the unpaved streets of Pucallpa, in which my mother participated. This classic tradition of military march that we do in Peruvian schools for the celebration of national holidays, reaches a particular meaning when they are all women and part of the same material they step on. Being aware of the delicate reality that women in the world are going through, I feel that they represent us all, those who were and will be affirming the way and those who come behind.
The pitcher has a special tradition in the world, associated with the collection and distribution of water for the community. Its design, are interpretations of the shape of shipibas vessels with feminine characteristics. These make me think of the creation of the human being and the woman, who was particularly conceived to inhabit the earth. They remind me of the Venus of the ancient world and their strong color suggests courage and struggle.
For generations, the Amazon has been forgotten by the authorities and seen as an uninhabited green mass, without cultures, traditions, deficiencies and needs. This discourse was reflected in school and university texts, in which the study of the most extensive territory of our country, was in many cases absent.
This sample seeks to make visible the realities of the geographical space of the Amazon, as a figure of characteristics associated with the feminine, which encompasses in it all other related figures, who fight in their vast lands. As a fertile, organic and diverse space that, far from being in a passive wait, is in constant movement and dialogue with the world, seeking to be heard.
Diana Riesco Lind
