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Fantastical wood carvings from Mexico
By Qu Zhi |
September 17, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BRIGHTLY colored wooden creatures of imagination emerge from the carving knives and paint brushes of folk artists from San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca, in an exhibition titled "Mystical Tradition of Mexico.
The fantastical sculptures by Zeny Fuentes Santiago and his wife Reyna Pi?a Ramírez are on display at the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts through September 21.
Craftsmen prefer the soft, gnarled, aromatic wood of the copal tree, its resin used for incense in spiritual and religious ceremonies.
They use first machetes, then smaller knives. Sometimes they bring out the creatures already hiding in a piece of wood, like a crouching jaguar. Then the sculptures are painted with small brushes and spines of the maguey plant, creating a blaze of colors and symbols.
Wood carving is a tradition in the valleys of Oaxaca state in the heart of Mexico.
The fanciful creatures are known as Alebrijes, which has not precise English translation. They have wings, spines, scales and features of various real and imagined animals. They are inspired by the 1930s cardboard and paper mache creations of Pedro Linares.
The exhibition's curator, Chantal Abrajan Pe?a, says that once Linares was very sick and hallucinating from a high fever, thus imagining dragons, monsters and creatures from pre-Columbian mythology. When he recovered, they became his subjects.
Santiago is the third-generation wood carver in his village. Born in 1973, he started carving when he was age 7. Now his wife and four children work in the studio.
The highlight of the exhibition is the elaborate "Wild Bull of Sun and Day," which took them one year to complete and received the Enart Award, the highest accolade in Mexican art. The bull represents power and the sun is the most powerful symbol.
The single piece of wood carving contains roosters crowing and sunflowers opening with the sun.
It also contains spiral snail signifying stages of life and Zapotec symbols for the beginning and end of life.
Date: Through September 21, 9am-4pm
Tel: 6431-4074
Venue: Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts, 79 Fenyang Rd
Free tickets can be printed online at http://www.shgmb.com/?p=9&a=view&r=50
The fantastical sculptures by Zeny Fuentes Santiago and his wife Reyna Pi?a Ramírez are on display at the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts through September 21.
Craftsmen prefer the soft, gnarled, aromatic wood of the copal tree, its resin used for incense in spiritual and religious ceremonies.
They use first machetes, then smaller knives. Sometimes they bring out the creatures already hiding in a piece of wood, like a crouching jaguar. Then the sculptures are painted with small brushes and spines of the maguey plant, creating a blaze of colors and symbols.
Wood carving is a tradition in the valleys of Oaxaca state in the heart of Mexico.
The fanciful creatures are known as Alebrijes, which has not precise English translation. They have wings, spines, scales and features of various real and imagined animals. They are inspired by the 1930s cardboard and paper mache creations of Pedro Linares.
The exhibition's curator, Chantal Abrajan Pe?a, says that once Linares was very sick and hallucinating from a high fever, thus imagining dragons, monsters and creatures from pre-Columbian mythology. When he recovered, they became his subjects.
Santiago is the third-generation wood carver in his village. Born in 1973, he started carving when he was age 7. Now his wife and four children work in the studio.
The highlight of the exhibition is the elaborate "Wild Bull of Sun and Day," which took them one year to complete and received the Enart Award, the highest accolade in Mexican art. The bull represents power and the sun is the most powerful symbol.
The single piece of wood carving contains roosters crowing and sunflowers opening with the sun.
It also contains spiral snail signifying stages of life and Zapotec symbols for the beginning and end of life.
Date: Through September 21, 9am-4pm
Tel: 6431-4074
Venue: Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts, 79 Fenyang Rd
Free tickets can be printed online at http://www.shgmb.com/?p=9&a=view&r=50
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