Tanya Aguiñiga & Porfirio Gutiérrez: Sangre de Nopal, 2024
Opening July 2024 at the UCLA Fowler Museum
As PART OF THE GETTY FOUNDATION’s 2024 PACIFIC STANDARD TIME: ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE
Top Left to Right: Artist Tanya Aguiñiga and Artist Porfirio Gutiérrez.
Bottom Left to Right: Tanya Aguiñiga, Cosas que sangran. Braided cotton rope, cochineal, heckled flax. Porfrio Gutiérrez, Ritual Series. Textile dyed with cochineal. Photograph: Javier Gutiérrez.
Weaving and the role of the weaver are integral to many Mesoamerican Indigenous cosmovisions—ways of living upon and perceiving the earth, the cosmos, and all that lies between. Many Mesoamerican creation myths center around a woman weaver whose creative labor and practice holds cosmic responsibilities. In one myth, she weaves the sun and moon into existence; in another, she leads all women in weaving new human life; in yet another she is tasked with weaving different layers of the sky. These stories highlight the practice of weaving as central to collective memory, and to the cosmovisions that many communities have created and re-signified over millennia. Yet many traditional weaving and dyeing practices are now at risk of disappearing, as new generations migrate in response to contemporary inequities. Centering Indigenous perspectives on science and art-making, this project aims to sustain and expand Indigenous knowledge of botanical dye technologies and weaving practices that are at risk of being lost through migration.
Focusing on Indigenous Oaxacan communities (Mixteco, Zapoteco, Purepecha, and others) in Southern California, this project is guided by lead artists Porfirio Gutiérrez, a Ventura-based Zapotec weaver from Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, and Tanya Aguiñiga, a Los Angeles-based contemporary fiber artist and craftswoman. Cosmovisión Indígena will trace the history, science, and contemporary uses of the cochineal dye-making process, while exploring the mythology, ritual and storytelling used to preserve and pass on this traditional knowledge. In addition, the project will establish an art lab and learning garden in Santa Barbara as well as a community research space in Oxnard, serving members of the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other indigenous communities from Oaxaca, Mexico, who have settled throughout Ventura County. There, younger Oaxacan-American artists will be able to learn the science, technology, and art of dyeing and weaving from experienced practitioners. The final exhibition will display pieces created in both sites alongside curated artworks by contemporary artists and community members.
Through weaving new material, affective, ecological, and temporal links between Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties, as well as Oaxaca, this project provides context and adds to understanding of Indigenous Oaxacan migration, contemporary craft practices, and their relationship to science and art-making.
Cosmovisión Indígena: The Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Contemporary Art has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to prepare for the next edition of the region-wide arts initiative Pacific Standard Time, scheduled to open in 2024. Created in community, the project is a partnership between Santa Barbara’s City College’s Atkinson Gallery, the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, the Santa Barbara County Office of Art and Culture, with the support of Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project/ Proyecto Mixteco Indígena Organización Comunitaria (MICOP) and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
This project is curated by John Connelly, Director, Atkinson Gallery; Frederick Janka, Executive Director, Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai; and Audrey Lopez, Ph.D., Public Art & Engagement Curator, Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture. Cosmovisión Indígena also has two lead artist advisors: Tanya Aguiñiga of Los Angeles and Porfirio Gutiérrez of Ventura and Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented series of collaborations among institutions across Southern California. In each, organizations simultaneously present research-based exhibitions, publications, performances and public conversations that explore and illuminate a significant theme in the region’s cultural history. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty Foundation, which seeks to fulfill the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Additional information is available at www.getty.edu/foundation.
