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Latin America

Jewellery rocks in Argentina

Nov 1st, 2008
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The Museo de Arte Popular Jose Hernandez resides in an proud colonial building nearby the design hub of Buenos Aires in Recoleta.

As you enter this museum, you are provided with a text panel that includes in point form the defining elements of artesanías (craft). Here they are roughly translated:

  • Be produced by manual workmanship with the use of tools of low technological complexity;
  • Show an appreciable degree of processing of the raw material based on a specific skill;
  • Have a recognizable functionality;
  • Display an aesthetic value, which is integrated in some way with the functionality;
  • Possess a recognizable cultural value in a particular socio-cultural and historical field

It seems a conservative list. The first criterion excludes craft involving digital technologies. Yet the fourth does acknowledge an aesthetic dimension. Surprisingly, in a Latin American context, nowhere in this list does it refer explicitly to craft as a traditional practice. This may be because of the profound discontinuities of Argentinean history that make ongoing traditions difficult to identify.

This discontinuity is evident in the displays. It seems a random assortment of objects, lacking the kind of narrative applied to modern art found in the nearby Museo de Bellas Artes. The objects vary dramatically in quality and are displayed in a lifeless fashion.

Yet, as often the case in Argentina, the lack of order in the official public realm enables something more spontaneous to emerge on the sideline. The temporary gallery is host to an extraordinary exhibition of contemporary jewellery inspired by Argentinean rock (not the stone, but the music!).

Unlike other ‘foreign’ imitations of Anglo rock’n roll, the Argentinean version is particularly home-grown, sung only in Spanish. It arrived in the 1970s with the emergence of ‘progressive rock’ with poetic lyrics and musical experimentation. During the 1980s, it weathered the dictatorship with the heavy nuevo rock Argentino.

To celebrate this tradition, the collective Huella Digital (Fingerprint including Juan Manuel Malm Green, Ignacio Arichuluaga and Oscar Linkovsky) created works for an exhibition Joyas del Rock (Jewels of Rock) featuring cabinets of jewellery inspired by different rock bands. Along with the jewellery, each display features graphics in the style of the music.

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Here’s a translation of the text panel:

Difficult choices … Can there be a music jewellery?
Memories of childhood, memorable moments, some romance led us to choose it.
We found hearts, hands, eyes, tears, people, facts, things of Argentina.
Love stories and urban landscapes.
Social stories, and spiritual journeys.
Jewels of Rock is a tribute to our country and its culture.
An appreciation done with fire, air, water, earth and music.

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The exhibition is interesting for a number of reasons. The link between jewellery and music is relatively rare (You might have thought that tango would have been their reference, but that is perhaps more for tourists). While there are graphic references to the album covers, the design of the jewellery seems to be more based on the feelings that the music evokes. As the text indicates, jewellery plays a role in paying homage to a more ephemeral medium such as music.

It’s also an interesting contrast to the Bone, Stone, Shell exhibition from New Zealand, which turned to the natural environment for a nationalist story. In Latin America, identity seems more anchored social history and cultural tradition, than an external element such as landscape. Despite this difference, both cases obviously share a privileged role for jewellery in acknowledging the historical value of their respective cultures.

Other relevant links in the Argentinean scene:

  • Be My Walking Gallery in which an artist creates jewellery so that her paintings can circulate
  • Juana de Arco fashion designer with outlet in Palermo that includes an excess of handmade items remixed from countries such as Paraguay
  • Materia Urbana San Telmo design shop with good range of works
  • Humawaca brand of accessories with distinctively Argentinean design

Craft across the Pacific

Sep 16th, 2008
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In cooperation with Raiz Diseño, ONA and MAVI (Museum of Visual Art), we will be presenting a workshop in Santiago Chile on 16-18 October to explore ways of exhibiting craft in art galleries. This is a wonderful opportunity to extend the dialogue between contemporary craft in Australia and Latin America and will coincide with the publication of the first craft magazine Mano de Obra.

Images on the flyer are from Marian Hosking, Nicole Lister, Beth Hatton and the group exhibition Heresy (Craft Victoria). The brooch below is by Roseanne Bartley (a larger version can be downloaded here).

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Campana Brothers on the power of nature

May 12th, 2008
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From a recent exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt museum, the Brazilian designers reflect on their romantic ideals. In particular, they celebrate the artisanship, individual expression, the presence of nature in urban life, recycling and dreams. The time seems ripe for the Campana Brothers. Its in this broader context that we might view the turn to the European forest in Australian craft. What will we find when we emerge from the forest?

South of Madrid

Oct 14th, 2007
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It’s hard not to enjoy the spectacle of oil paintings in the Prado museum. The vivacity of Velazquez is compelling. But the audio that accompanies the collection goes on ad nauseum about what ‘masterpieces’ they are. You soon realise that your enjoyment is being channeled into an imperial mindset. The vertiginous scenes of baroque paintings such as Titian seem to celebrate the verticality that separates the higher from the lower orders. I think it would be much more interesting to look at these paintings outside the Prado, say over with the colonials at Casa America.

Casa America is an centre for Latin American culture in Madrid. As part of their VivAmerica Festival, they present an exhibition from the southern continent called Iberomerica Global – Between Globalism and Localism. The theme deliberately avoids an ethnographic context and instead contextualises the ex-colonies with an issue that applies just as easily throughout the world as a whole. As it is, this approach falls into the easy solution of exploring ‘diversity’. While it is difficult to find a dynamic thread between the works, some are interesting on an individual level.

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Gaston Ugalde’s installation is a macabre-comic gathering of scarecrow like figures, hung in contorted poses with heads crudely fabricated from traditional textiles. The work comes endorsed by Ticio Escobar, curator from Paraguay, and thus seems to be a case of found folk art. The text identifies the figures as part of a popular push to dissuade young people in La Paz from crime. In another century, they might have used real heads on stakes. While the work is affective, the anthropological method leaves many questions unanswered, such as how the makers of the original figures participated in making the art. The rest of the exhibition is mostly conceptual work that appears sophisticated but leaves the viewer tepid. The default position towards the ex-colonies appears to be a victimary scene of criminal violence.

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There are many talks associated with the festival. I was at a session with Sergio Cabrera (Colombia), Arturo Corcuera (Peru), Rodrigo Fresan (Argentina) and Carla Guilfenbein (Chile). I may have been projecting, but they did seem a little awed by the colonial hub. But there was much interest from the floor. In attempting to find a common link between them, they did discuss the sense of responsibility for a people that weighs on them. However, there seemed to be no talk of Indigenous literatures.

Whatever the faults, it’s hard to imagine a similar festival in London with representatives of the English-speaking south. Perhaps it’s not speaking English that brings them together.

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