Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín: Umbilical Cord

Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín - Wind, 2024 (detail)

"The cord is a connection to life, and life itself is a knot of problems, metaphorically tied to a day in the Mayan calendar called B'ATZ, which means to knot and unknot." - Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín.

Regular readers will know that I am particularly interested in the work of artists who incorporate the use of thread or stitch into their practice. Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín is an example of yet another artist who does so. Quiacaín is the reason I found myself making a visit to Exmouth Market after many years, and a first visit to Elizabeth Xi Bauer's gallery situated there to catch this exhibition of his work. I first encountered Quiacaín's work last year at the excellent Barbican exhibition Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, (here), in which he was represented by a piece incorporating coloured thread draped on a wooden frame entitled Kukulkan, which is also featured here. Quiacaín was born in 1982 in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, where he still lives and works from his studio at Lake Atitlán. He draws inspiration from the ancient culture of his native Tz’utujil heritage found in both urban and rural regions of the country and the postcolonial notion of a homogenous national identity, his work celebrates the diversity of contemporary Tz’utujil life. Quiacaín's work creates a dialogue that sits between Western contemporary art and indigenous craft traditions combining both oil painting and Mayan textile techniques. In this exhition Umbilical Cord, he expands on his explorations of the knot as a metaphor for life and the challenges it poses, and a knot between the past and the present in terms of cultural continuity. As well as thread and paint Quiacaín also works with and creates shaped wooden frame constructions as backdrops for his thread pieces to sit on. He also creates abstract, sculptural picture frame-like hinged wooden wall-mounted or freestanding works. All appear to seek a connection with his Mayan ancestry with titles referencing the abuelas and abuelos (grandmothers and grandfathers) and their inherent wisdom. The textile works here are to my eyes very reminiscent of and similar in spirit to other textile art practitioners such as Sheila Hicks (here), and the wonderful Olga de Amaral (here).

Four Cardinal Points, 2024

Seed, 2024

Hidden Gray, 2018

Grandmother, 2024

Grandmother, 2023

Knot, 2017

Textile Codex, 2025

Offering, 2024

Grandfather, 2020

Knotting and Unknotting, 2022

Kukulkan, 2023

Wind, 2024

Grandfather, 2023

The Hidden, 2006

Yellow Knotted, 2018

Maternal Grandmother, 2024

Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín: Umbilical Cord

until 2nd August

Elizabeth Xi Bauer

20-22 Exmouth Market

London

EC1R

Paul-André Robert - Les Papillons dans La Nature

 

This weekend sees the start of the annual Big Butterfly Count in the UK (which runs until the 10th August), a national census to document the health of the nation's butterfly species. I couldn't think of a better way of celebrating the count than sharing with you these delightfully pleasing illustrations of butterflies and moths by Swiss painter and illustrator Paul-André Robert (1901-1977) which were a lovely find. They come from Robert's book Les Papillons dans La Nature (Butterflies and Moths in Nature, 1934). Robert hailed from a family of artists, his father, grandfather and great uncle were all painters, and during his lifetime published 10 books as an author, illustrator or both on natural history, specialising in the fauna and flora of Europe. Throughout the 405 pages of Les Papillons dans La Nature, the author describes the habitats, host plants, immature stages and behaviour of 64 species of European Lepidoptera (34 butterflies and more than 30 moths), each accompanied by a detailed watercolour painting, usually displaying different postures observed from life. Robert was very meticulous in his work reproducing the colours, wing patterns, morphological details and poses of each species. He stated in a letter to his editor, "as I made progress in the work of watercolours, I am increasingly impressed by the difference between the living butterfly in its natural pose (this is the pose that I always choose), and the [pinned] spread butterfly as it is usually represented. The difference is sometimes unbelievable. In front of one or another butterfly, which I know from collections or books, I am suddenly amazed when I find it alive in the pose for which it was created.” Robert's illustrations are superb paintings and really remind me of the lovely period butterfly illustrations once found on cigarette cards produced by manufacturers such as Wills (here), and the more stylised pochoir butterfly illustrations of butterflies by E A Seguy (here). Another book Robert is renowned for is Les Libellules (Odonates) (The Dragonflies, Robert, 1958), which I hope to feature in a future post. Sign up for the Big Butterfly Count in the link above and get counting.