Santiago, Chile, 2015
This is my first “Chilean” quilt. After reading about the Human Zoos of the late 1800’s, I felt that I needed to ‘place’ the blind Yaghan woman, Peine, where she belonged, in Tierra del Fuego.
The three indigenous groups in that cold and wet island participated in very similar initiation rites; the men painted their bodies and faces and wore masks to scare women off. When this photograph was taken the initiation rites were almost non existent as there were so few young men left to initiate. Mourners began to paint their bodies and faces when someone died.
Cotton fabric eco-printed by Paulina Mella. Layout, design, hand embroidered and quilted by me.
Photograph: Martin Guisinde Hentschel, 1919-1922.
Punta Remolino, North Coast of the Beagle Chanel, Tierra del Fuego, Chile.