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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: 10 1/4 × 8 1/2 × 16 1/4 in. (26 × 21.6 × 41.3 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2022.8.2
On view
DescriptionLoro (parrot) is one of more than fifty endangered creatures recreated in clay by the artist and Indigenous rights activist Celia Vasquez Yui. (You can see Yui’s Venado [deer] on display in the case opposite.) 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
Parrot
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.
Celia Vasquez Yui
Date: 2021
Medium: Coil-built pre-fire slip-painted clay with vegetal resins
Object number: 2022.8.1
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2017
Medium: Glazed ceramic and repurposed ceramic figurines
Object number: 2018.5
Zana Briski
Date: 2020
Medium: Unique gold-toned photogram on gelatin silver paper
Object number: 2024.12.1
Carrie Mae Weems
Date: 1990 (printed 2010)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2011.5
Wendy Red Star
Date: 2019
Medium: Pigment print on archival paper
Object number: 2019.16.2
Wendy Red Star
Date: 2019
Medium: Pigment print on archival paper
Object number: 2019.16.7
Wendy Red Star
Date: 2019
Medium: Portfolio of 15 pigment prints on archival paper
Object number: 2019.16.1-15
Jamea Richmond-Edwards
Date: 2018
Medium: Pigment print with silkscreen diamond dust and gold foil
Object number: 2020.1
Asad Faulwell
Date: 2022
Medium: Acrylic, pins and photo collage on canvas
Object number: 2022.7
Henry Horenstein
Date: 1995-2001
Medium: Cibachrome
Object number: 2019.18.14
Unknown artist, Peruivian (Cuzco School)
Date: late 17th-early 18th century
Medium: Oil on canvas
Object number: 2019.12