La Wayaka Current

Quimaria

During the La Wayaka stay, I have brought the feminine energy that I often work with into a new medium. While I mostly work with water-based oils, I have gone back a few years in my own life, where I have worked with fashion design before visual art, but also generations back, when working with especially yarn and embroidery was only found among women. For the same reason, the medium has not achieved the same status in the art world, which I, as a feminist artist, want to challenge.
This piece is made entirely with a normal needle and crochet hook from llama yarn from Chile. The motif itself contains my encounter with the wild Atacama desert, which first showed me its layered horizons, then the mighty mountains and volcanoes. I was particularly fascinated by the different levels of the horizon as well as their feminine lines, which is why I embrace it in the work. The story of Quimal and the two princes struck me because it took me back to my hometown, where we have a similar tale of a woman who had to choose between two men. With humility to the legends and a 2023 irony, I can't help but use both stories as fuel for why the meeting of the masculine and the feminine must still have such tragic fates. Perhaps most of all, I would incorporate Quimal and her prince as a reminder of inner balance and authenticity, especially in the paradigm shift we now find ourselves in, where the patriarchs around the world are slowly being tipped.
I have played with the inner as well as outer process in the masculine-feminine balances with different textures and weights in the yarns with a desire to show how beautiful even the most messy, introverted journey can be, seen with a little perspective.

The history of Quimal (Chile)

Every afternoon the young prince Licancabur went out to visit the Gran Salar, at the other end of which, beyond the uninhabited mountain range that we know today as Domeyko, they saw the Sun dead in the sea all afternoon. Among the offspring of the ancient mountains was the beautiful Quimal.
After several sunsets together, Quimal and Licancabur fell deeply in love. All went well until another of the princes, Lascar, met the beautiful Quimal. The coveted princess admits that her heart belongs to Licancabut. Lascar, enraged by Quimal's confession, says: If I can't have you, no one else will! He was determined to settle accounts with Licancabur.
The great mountains decided to intervene and punished them: You, princess, for creating discord between these two brothers are banished to the uninhabited mountain range of Domeyko. Now you, Lascar, will be condemned to always be steaming with anger and also snarling with confusion. And also for you, young Licancabur, Quimal will always be before you without ever being able to meet.

The Story of Mary (Denmark)

The legend tells that two deadly knights, Hem and Sem, fought a duel in the spring for a beautiful virgin Mary. However, fate wanted both knights to perish. In grief over this, the maiden drowned herself in the fjord. Her rich property went to the monastery, and the place where she found her final resting place was named Marias Ager after her. Spring has naturally sprung in the place where she shed her brave tears over the suitors.