Donna Huanca
AWICHA YARTIRI (Grandmother as Healer), 2009 18' x 10' x 18'
‘AWICHA YARTIRI’ is a proposal for an on-site installation which highlights the parallels of Bolivian and Korean culture, which still respects indigenous traditions in a contemporary climate.
‘AWICHA YARTIRI’ layers images, colors and objects derived from my personal mythology and genetic memory against architectural models and objects appropriated from traditional Korean Mudang (shaman) Gut (ritual) “Spirit Rooms”.
Iconic images are molded from fabric using my grandmothers, my mothers and my clothing as well as anyonomous used women’s clothing from area, which will help sculpt the installation. With this gesture, the DNA of many women will be woven together as an image, solidifying the synergy of the piece both conceptually and aesthetically.
PACHAMAMA, 2008 (video still) performance at Marin Headlands
The installation will serve as a stage for a performance where I will appropriate a healing ritual inspired by stories of my grandmother who was a Quechuan YARTIRI (spiritual healer) from Potosi, Bolivia.
With this piece, I am considering Carl Jung’s Genetic (or racial memory) theory, which by definition is a “memory present at birth that exists in the absence of sensory experience, and is incorporated into the genome over long spans of time.”
Since properties of a“ YARTIRI” is believed to be an inherited intuition, (as is the role of some Mudangs) the performance accepts the potential of inherited memory and healing through ritual.
The Installation is dedicated to the comfort women of World War II who like to be referred to as Halmonie (Grandmothers).
Born in Chicago, Huanca received BFA in Painting from the University of Houston in 2004 and received the DeGolyer Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art the same year. She has been invited to residencies at Skowhegan School of painting and sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas, L’ecole du Baoum, Grenoble, France, Workspace Residency at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York City, Art OMI International in Ghent, New York and Headlands Center for The Arts, San Francisco, California. Upcoming projects include GOON SQUAD: remake of Biba Boutique (collaboration with MILHK design and Marcella Faustini) at Ping Pong Gallery in San Francisco and a year-long residency as guest student at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.
Huanca’a line of wearable sculptures have been traveling, profiled and sold with Andrea Zittel’s Smockshop, currently on view at Tanja Pol Galerie in Munich, Germany.
Dear Donna,
Thanks for posting!
I’m interested in how you fuse Korean and Brazilian culture with your own personal mythologies. Your rituals and settings feel exotic, evoking a more other-worldly Other. Would you write more about how you blend and contemporize your references to those cultures?
Pamela Sunstrum (also on this site) talks about the transcultural in her work. Her rituals are spare (no props, no costumes) body-centered ephemera performed in rural landscapes and a lake. What setting do you find most resonant for your performance?
I keep thinking about connections on this site. Very exciting!
Saya Woolfalk posted images and links to video with color intensive, fantastical costumes and environment. The characters in her performances are completely camouflaged. Would you write about the importance of your visage when you perform? Do you maintain a fixed expression or allow your white face to reflect your emotions?
Thanks for your reply, Donna.
Cheers!
Cathy
Dear Cathy-
Thank you for your interest in my work.
My work has always been autobiographical in nature, layering my genetic
memory with subjects that influence me very much such as anthropology,
fashion, and nomadism to name a few.
In the piece ‘AWICHA YARTIRI’ I reference stories of my grandmother told to
me by my father, who claims that she was a quechean spiritual healer in
Potosi, BOLIVIA.
In this piece, I wanted to pay respect to the Comfort Women of World War II
(whom like to be referred to as Grandmothers, rather than comfort women) and
also get to know my grandmother too by pretending to be her for a moment.
I am ‘blending and contemporizing references to those cultures by fusing my
own history in the process, referencing my grandmother whom I am very
intrigued by but have never met, using materials that have my matriarch’s
history and DNA, as well as found, discarded clothing and composing a
performance that blends the past/present.
In my performances, I compose the sound, stage and costumes.
(you can hear some of my solo sound project RUA MINX here:
http://myspace.com/ruaminx where I have compositions made with my sewing
machine, amongst other electronics)
I am very much interested in contemporary subcultures such as noise music,
the psychedelic stage sets of noise monsters Caroliner Rainbow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwpwE2HDg84, and the screwed drug-enduced
sound of Salem (http://www.myspace.com/jjhhmm) and DJ Screw (referencing my
10 years in Houston, Texas) as well as traditional recordings of chanting
ceremonial sounds from indigenous ceremonies whenever I can find them.
When making wearable sculptures and ready to wear clothing, I look to the
creativity and D.I.Y approach of Japanese Street Fashion, indigenous wear,
especially the HUICHOLES from northern mexico, the russian futurists, and
also mainstream fashion houses such as Maison Martin Margiela and
Balenciaga.
I have done performances in subways, a dry cleaner, seedy bars and
galleries, I have no rules when it comes to space, it all depends on the
situation that the piece requires.
During performances I have to be in a meditative state and have expressions
as they come.
I always allow my face to reflect my emotions during performance (and
everyday life).
This is a clip of a video where I dress my collaborator, Maria Chavez in all
the clothing I own:
Please browse my website for more works:
http://www.ruaminx.com
CHEERS,
Donna