Umbilical Cord

The presence of abstraction in Indigenous art within Maya territories and beyond precedes colonisation, and certainly the European avant-garde. Undeniably, it is only the overbearing influence of eurocentrism that maintains such hierarchical rapport, especially now that Indigenous artists are becoming increasingly prominent in the “global” art world. For instance, one of Pichillá’s key references, the Madrid Codex, contains abstract pictorial elements in depicting the Maya calendar, which might be regarded as “Minimalist” – to quote the artist – yet have been dated to circa 900–1521 AD. From this superlatively important Maya artefact, which remains to date in Spain, the artist “extracts” abstract geometric forms, transporting them and transforming them into his own works as seen in Four Cardinal Points (2024) ².

There are many challenges to presenting work by an Indigenous artist from the Abya Yala in a contemporary gallery in the capital of a former colonial empire. Translation – where possible – is at best imperfect, revealed by the artist’s own alternate use of titles in Spanish, Tzʼutujil and English. Art, on the other hand, might provide a more effective, and undoubtedly affective means, enabling the establishment of certain connections, bonds, ties, material and immaterial. In turn, these might bypass inherited modes of thinking, raising awareness to the persistence of other worldviews, and even to other potential worlds, within the longue durée ³.

Pichillá refers to his practice as a process of revendication, reivindicación in Spanish, of textile art. As per its dictionary definition, the term is indicative of an intention to reclaim, to claim back or recover something. In this case, the claim refers to the recognition of the primacy of ancestral knowledge and textile practices despite (or against) their historic dismissal. Indeed, the term is most commonly used in the context of law, which grants further gravity to Pichillá’s mission given the centuries of depredation that Indigenous Maya communities have been subject to ever since the imposition of colonial rule. Yet the artist’s gesture signals anything but subjection; rather, it marks defiance, endurance and survival, embedded deep within the textures of the marvellous textiles that these communities continue to create.

In the video-performance Umbilical Cord (2021), Pichillá is seen weaving in the forest using a backstrap loom tied to the trunk of a tree. His nimble hands expertly position and reposition threads, unequivocally precise. The textile is thus returned to its vegetal roots, as an offering perhaps. It becomes a line of connection to nature, life-sustaining like an umbilical cord, and equally essential as a mode of knowledge transmission, intergenerationally. It encapsulates one’s being, one’s identity, expressing a deep sense of interconnectedness across space and time.

Knotting and Unknotting (2016) might be viewed as a coda to the exhibition, tying it together as it were. Similar to Umbilical Cord (2021), the piece speaks to the notion of interconnectedness, yet now through the perspective of an inanimate object animated by the elements. The knot is emblematic, due to its potent symbolism by relation to ancestral Maya culture. Knotting and unknotting, as actions, however, might be seen as a parallel to life, with its twists and turns, joys and sorrows, accomplishments and vicissitudes. Fire burns through the candle, gradually, definitively, releasing the knot (or perhaps it is the knot that undoes itself). Air currents direct the smoke, tracing playful lines within the darkness, highlighting the candle’s complete dissolution into ash. As the smoke slowly vanishes, so does the ash, carried away by the breeze.