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These cotton table runners were handmade by Shipibo-Konibo artist Wilma Maynas using ancestral designs known as kené, inspired by the patterned skin of el Ronín, the sacred serpent in the Shipibo-Konibo worldview. Kené is expressed through pottery, weaving, drawing, and music. Sacred and medicinal plants such as ayahuasca and piri piri are ingested in order for these designs to materialize.
61" x 16"
Ronin kené - Green: This textile piece features the Ronin kené, geometric patterns inspired by the sacred anaconda in the Shipibo-Konibo worldview. This piece is made using natural dye from the bark of the yakushapana tree and washed with river clay. The embroidery is added once the designs have been dyed.
Ronin kené - Red: This textile piece features the Ronin kené, geometric patterns inspired by the sacred anaconda in the Shipibo-Konibo worldview. This piece is made using natural dye from the achiote fruit and washed with river clay. The embroidery is added once the designs have been dyed.
Xao kené: This textile piece features the xao kené - the ancestral geometric pattern. The zigzag pattern that features on the border represents the teeth of the piranha fish, which symbolize protection.
As part of the exhibition Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, Maynas collaborated with Ronin Koshi and Olinda Reshinjabe Silvano to create Non Kenébo, 2022, a three-panelled painting of geometric and curvilinear designs that convey creation stories, mythologies, and everyday accounts. Kené art is profoundly anchored in ancestral knowledge of shamanism, traditional crafts, and sacred plants, and it is powerfully infused with political activism in defense of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples.
Maynas is a senior artist of Cantagallo community of the Shipibo-Konibo people. She is also a renowned arts educator. Much of the proceeds from her embroidery sales are redistributed to fund educational, social, and cultural initiatives in the community of Cantagallo, Lima, Peru.
The Power Plant is Canada's leading art gallery devoted exclusively to contemporary art by artists from Canada and the world. We aim to share art with wider audiences through free admission to our exhibitions, public programs, and educational publications.