XIQUILTE Where blue is born

The work of the Mexican artist Tania Candiani (CDMX, 1974) focuses on her ability to translate different languages through the development of multiple artifacts, objects, or processes that show a deep interest in the investigation of their social and natural environment.
The exhibition presents a synthesis of the Cromática series of work, an investigation that began in 2015 around the origins and processes of natural dyes from the grana cochinilla, minerals and indigo. Where blue is born focuses on the origin of indigo from the plant that it is also known as jiquilte, and its use in the textile industry in Oaxaca.

The show unfolds in three moments that demonstrate the artisan process of production of the dye: in an introductory way, a video presents Don Octaviano Pérez, one of the few people dedicated to working on this process and which was known as the guardian of indigo (Indigofera suffruticosa) in the community of Santiago Niltepec -which translates as “Cerro del añil”- in the region juchiteca of the state, selecting and cutting the plant that gives origin to the pigment for its later treatment in which they are ground and mixed with water in large jars.
In a second moment, a pair of sieves serve as cloth filters in which the inked liquid solidifies and transforms into rocks or indigo wedges, from which hundreds of shades of blue. Both pieces bear witness to the artisanal process that the artist replicated at the MACO in Oaxaca in 2015.
The third moment of the exhibition is carried out by a central sculpture or Urdimbre, woven by Paulina Tejeda, who represents the traditional wooden structures in which the skeins of wool that have been previously washed and dyed with wedges.
The warp will be complemented by a Reed Line with a series of woven threads.

Finally, in a sort of epilogue, a group of skeins of wool dyed in different shades hang from the ceiling of the room, evidencing the production process of the also knownLike Blue Gold. With this, Candiani not only manages to document the historical process that has provided multiple pigments to the global creative industry, but continues with the preservation of emblematic practice of a region.

Curator: Alberto Ríos de la Rosa