Cecilia Vicuña

An object is not an object. It is the witness to a relationship.

Listening with the fingers, a sensory memory came first; the scattered bones, the sticks and feathers were sacred objects I had to put in order.

To follow their will was to rediscover a way of thinking; Listening to the elements I traveled down pathways of the mind that led me to an ancient silence waiting to be heard.

To think was to follow the music, the feeling of the elements.

This is the way a communion with the sky and the sea began, the necessity to respond to their desires with a work that would be prayer, a joy to the elements.

Joy itself is the prayer.

Cecilia Vicuña
Precario/Precarious
Tanam Press, 1983

Featured Installations

Robot jardín (1966)
Culo e' canasta (1966)
Cono Rojo (1966)
Casa e' palo (1966)
Guardián (1967)
Tul libro (1974)
Red Silk (1974)
Cajita e' tierra (1974)
Paño e' sangre [also Venda / Bandage] (1974)
Cementerio (1982)
Mica (1984)
Cruz de Hilo (1986)
Canasta Espiral (1986)
Mummy's Skirt (1987)
Shaman Herido (1987)
Jazmín (1989)
Arco Arrayán (1990)
Origen del Tejido (1990)
Poncho Huiro (1990)
Cacho Cabra (1994)
Ofrenda (1994)
 

Mixed media, wool, tin.

Mixed media, basket core, and paint

Mixed media, cement, wood

Mixed media, wood, paint

Mixed media

Type writing on Silk. London

Journal of Objects for the Chilean Resistance
London, June 24, 1973- August 1974.

In June 1973, when the right wing and the army were openly conspiring to overthrow the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende, I decided to make an object everyday in support of the Chilean revolutionary process.

Each journal entry was an object constructed from debris from London streets.

After completing 400 objects the Journal stopped.

The objects were exhibited at the Arts Meeting Place, in Covent Garden, London July 21 - 28, 1974.

The 12 books for the Chilean Resistance, which were part of the Journal, were included in "WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution" curated by Connie Butler at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2007.

The 12 books, and a set of precarios from A Journal of Objects for the Chilean Resistance are now in the collection of the Tate Gallery in London.

Polaroid, cloth

Mixed media, carboard, soil, wire, paint

Mixed media, stick, cord, thread, cloth

Mixed media, wood, and bones

Mixed media, stone, and mica

Mixed media, wood, and thread

Mixed media, stone, clay, and basket core

Mixed media, cloth, dye, and found objects

Mixed media, wood, cotton, and twigs

Mixed media, wood, thread, and dried jasmin

Mixed media, clay, wood, thread, and bark

Mixed media

Mixed media

Mixed media, clay, and seeds

Mixed media, shell, and net