Isichapuitu

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. ‘Isichapuiti’ 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. This piece is particularly exposed, the filigree found etched into the ceramic of other figures in this series having been left out in favour of a simple, smooth dark skin. The strange reduction and decentralisation of the female form is only recognisable by its sexual interface and coded use of flowers, the otherwise raw clay punctured with fresh stigmata pick out in a vivid, glossy red that speaks of silent pain & suffering.