Rows of textiles patterned with bright chevron stripes and horses hang in Colgate’s Longyear Museum of Anthropology as part of the exhibition Threads of Tradition: Aymara and Quechua Textiles of the Andes.
Quechua, Lliclla, Department of Cuzco, Peru (funded by Timothy Sullivan ’89)
The exhibition, which runs until June 3, opened in March with a reception and gallery talk given by Kate Kelly ’12, who spent the summer researching and collating the exhibition with her adviser for the project, senior curator of the Longyear, Carol Ann Lorenz.
An array of more than 70 objects — from knit hats and belts to baby wraps and coca leaf bags — provides a dazzling view of Andean hand-weaving skills and aesthetics.
For many centuries, the people of the Andes Mountains in Peru and Bolivia fashioned textiles from the fibers of llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas. The textiles in this exhibition — most dating from the 1920s and up through the 1990s — demonstrate the aesthetic and cultural value still ascribed to weaving in the Andes today.
Contemporary weavers, most of them women, continue to weave symbols of the Andean worldview into textiles that have both everyday and ceremonial functions.
Many of the textiles in the exhibition depict the relationships between the cosmos and the local environment: geometric forms representing the sun and stars, abstract and naturalistic images of the flora and fauna, including felines, condors, the viscacha (a rodent), and cattle.
A number of the textiles came with complete information, including names of weavers, regions, and exact dates that they were woven. When looking for pieces, Lorenz “wanted things that were indigenous weavings and for indigenous use.” For example, one coca bag in the exhibition had previously belonged to someone who added the tassels to the bag upon becoming a leader in his region.
Incorporating many facets of the traditional Andean life, all of the pieces are now a part of Colgate’s permanent collection.