Wak’a del Agua

Five oblong ceramic pieces stacked one on top of the other appear precariously positioned in Kukuli Velarde’s Wak’a del Agua. The pieces are reminiscent of larger-than-life stones with a bound, multi-faced head positioned at center. The shape of the whole is a nod to the Inca Empire’s tradition of stacking stones to mark a place or thing as a sacred, sentient entity – a wak’a in the Quechua language of Peru. In Quechua, there was no word similar to the Western concept of “sacred.” Instead, people viewed, and still view, wak’a’s as mythical ancestors who had been petrified into everlasting stone and continued to act as family members.

This work is the first in the artist’s new series, “De Las Wak’as y Las Pachamamas” that acknowledges the entities that populate the Andean world. Specifically, this work calls upon the artist’s Peruvian heritage to create a timeline of Peruvian history from the Wari period (450-1000 CE) to the present. Velarde’s Wak’a del Agua nods to her ancestral lineage through the stacked shape and title of the sculpture, but also through the historical narrative she weaves between the five layers. Specifically, Velarde invokes works from the ancient past to speak to silenced Indigenous voices, working to decolonize artistic practice and spaces by challenging viewers to see through the eyes of those who were silenced by colonial institutions.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Created by Kukuli Velarde (born 1962)