Culebreando

Part of the The Isichapuitu Series. Peruvian Kukuli Velarde makes work indebted to folk tradition and traditional ornamentation, exploring the new politics of identity, estrangements of context and acts of “forgetfulness” that occur as art is displaced from its origin. ‘Culebreando’ is cut from a series of works exploring memory, fear, desire and ideology through figurative icons that, in tandem, present a larger picture of the artists identity and belief in a shared system of traits. Choosing a simple white glaze, Velarde adds graffitied text and image across the figurative body that slide between allusions to harm or violence and emotional upheaval — words such as ‘miedo de caer pero’ (fear of falling’) or ‘corazón no suede’ (‘heart can not’) tattood across the chest, and the repeated symbol of the serpent is knowingly deployed in reference to feminine temptation and the suffering inflicted by that notion.