Weaving Wisdom: Community Learning Through Wool Crafts
(2025)
author(s): Fabiola Hernandez Cervantes
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Wixárika crafts are a testament to resilience and adaptability, they have been preserved since pre-Hispanic times. The evolution of some of these over the past century, influenced by global movements in the 1960s, has created a niche for Wixárika art and craft. Influenced by tourism, new styles, colors, and symbols have been introduced, serving as a form of resistance against the erasure of traditional knowledge and practices 500 years after the colonial period. Tsik+ri has gained global popularity as a method to create decorative geometric yarn pieces, but this craft not only provides insights about Indigenous cultures, experiences, and embodied knowledge, but also raises discussion about land and cultural appropriation by non-Indigenous individuals. In this exposition, I present a series of workshops held in the region of the Arctic Circle, where a development project is taking place to improve and enhance the use of sustainable wool by revitalizing craft heritage in a multicultural way. The method of this study is Art-Based Action Research. The study makes visible an essential feature of this textile artifact: its ability to transcend geopolitical and cultural borders, embodying a unique fusion of heritage and contemporary design. Indigenous craft practices from the Mesoamerican Wixárika culture, such as the Tsik+ri, are rooted in the multicultural identity of Mexico. The workshops served as platforms to communicate the culture and challenges of Wixaritari to Arctic and international contexts. This research sustains that implementing craft practices in the context of contemporary art requires profound knowledge and respect for its origins.
Sigilos de amor e de Chagas/Sigils of Love and Sores
(2025)
author(s): Carolina Albuquerque
published in: Research Catalogue
O presente ensaio visa fomentar uma discussão acerca da intersecção entre a arte, a espiritualidade e a imigração, temas que se revelam notórios nas expressões culturais contemporâneas sociais e pessoais. Mais concretamente, analisa-se a forma como a artista navega na sua identidade e experiência, abordando questões sociais e reflexões pessoais sobre a experiência do imigrante.
Os elementos contidos nesta obra incluem peças de alumínio gravadas com sigilos de amor e mãos de cerâmica com olhos nas palmas. Os olhos remetem para a Mão de Fátima, um símbolo de proteção, mas as mãos também evocam as chagas em pessoas de cor, sugerindo um vínculo com experiências históricas de dor e sofrimento. Ao evidenciar as cicatrizes de pessoas que realmente viveram essas feridas, esta obra incorpora uma dimensão de memória e resistência.
Este ensaio é um registo de histórias e memórias pessoais na produção artística, inserido na investigação do doutoramento em Artes Plásticas da Universidade do Porto.
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The present essay seeks to stimulate a discourse on the confluence of art, spirituality and immigration, themes that have become increasingly prevalent in contemporary cultural expressions, both social and personal. Specifically, it will analyse how the artist navigates her identity and experience, addressing social issues and personal reflections on the immigrant experience.
The elements of the installation include aluminium pieces engraved with love sigils and ceramic hands with eyes in their palms. The eyes refer to the hand of Fatima, a symbol of protection, but the hands also evoke the wounds on the hands of people of colour, suggesting a link with historical experiences of pain and suffering. By highlighting the scars of people who have actually experienced these wounds, this work incorporates a dimension of memory and resistance.
This essay is a register of personal stories and memories in artistic production, as part of the research for a PhD in Plastic Arts at the University of Porto.
Stitching for Material Sensitivity: From Traditional to Activist Embroidery
(2023)
author(s): Fabiola Hernandez Cervantes, Maria Huhmarniemi
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Cochineal is an insect that has been used for textile dyeing since pre-Hispanic cultures in Mexico. This exposition discusses the use of the cochineal insect as a natural dye for wool and the bridge between ancient indigenous knowledge and contemporary artistic research. A transatlantic connection is created between the Mexican plateau and the Arctic region, merging traditional knowledge, contemporary art, crafting and conceptualisation through an artistic embroidery initiative involving researchers, craft artists and human rights activists living in the province of Lapland in Finland. Documentary photos of artistic practice and research diaries enhance discussion on sustainability, tradition, craftivism, decolonisation and indigenous knowledge. This exposition embraces collaborative craftivism through a group initiative called Embroidered Stances, discussions about material interconnectedness in a web-of-life conceptual structure that includes sheep wool, cactus, cochineal and ancestral knowledge. The endorsement of material sensitivity is narrated into embroideries by the first author Cervantes and discussed, acknowledging complexities within issues of cultural and ecological sustainability.