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Artist/Maker
Celia Vasquez Yui
(Shipibo-Conibo People of Peru, born 1960)
Date2021
MediumCoil-built pre-fire slip-painted clay with vegetal resins
DimensionsOverall: 17 1/4 in. × 8 in. × 23 in. (43.8 × 20.3 × 58.4 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2022.8.1
On view
DescriptionVenado (deer) is one of more than fifty endangered creatures recreated in clay by the artist and Indigenous rights activist Celia Vasquez Yui. A member of the Shipibo-Conibo people from the Peruvian Amazon, the artist constructs her animals by using the ancient ceramic technique of hand-coiling clay, using materials from the local environment. The abstract patterns etched onto the creatures—known as kené in Shipibo language—are part of a codified system of design that encompass areas of perception beyond the visual and are believed to be able to shift energy and to heal. Vasquez Yui began creating ceramics alongside her mother and now works with her daughter Diana Ruiz Vasquez. They ritually prepare to create each ceramic work, much like a shaman would before a ceremony.
The Shipibo-Conibo Center, has requested that the following text always be displayed alongside the work:
Matteo Norzi of the Shipibo-Conibo Center writes, "If the order of Shipibo designs can be understood as a visual manifesto of the commitment to the core values of Indigenous ethics, and to protocols of conviviality, reciprocity, and kinship that extends beyond the human to animal, plant, land, and water, it is within these principles that the artistic collaboration between Celia Vasquez Yui and the Shipibo-Conibo Center is rooted. This implies an understanding that the work of art, the work of environmental activism, and the struggle towards Indigenous sovereignty cannot be separated; they must move forward on the same path."
www.shipiboconibo.org
Collections
Additional Details
Alternate Titles
Deer
Exhibition History
2024-2025
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).
2022
New York, NY. Salon 94 Gallery, "Celia Vasquez Yui: The Council of the Mother Spirits of the Animals," January 19-March 5, 2022.
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).
2022
New York, NY. Salon 94 Gallery, "Celia Vasquez Yui: The Council of the Mother Spirits of the Animals," January 19-March 5, 2022.
Provenance
2022: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Salon 94, New York City.
There are no works to discover for this record.