Abstract

This thesis analyzes the presence of the Andean kipu in the work of Contemporary South American Art to discuss its potential as a decolonial tool within art spaces. With a focus on the artistic kipus of Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Cecilia Vicuña, and Paola Torres Núñez del Prado, I identify aspects of their practices that reflect Andean epistemology and ontology. By choosing this Andean textile as a source of artistic inquiry and inspiration, these artists go beyond the kipu’s aesthetic properties, employing it to explore and question historical narratives, social issues, identity, and ancestry. Their professional practices show the continued presence of the kipu as a form of art in the museum and beyond.

In order to understand the kipu’s materiality in relation to the Aymara notion of uywaña (mutual nurturing) as explained by Elvira Espejo Ayca, I begin with a historical overview of the kipu’s usage and evolution. The next section analyzes Eielson’s kipu artwork as a relevant precedent for artistic kipus. The following sections explore the works of Vicuña and Torres respectively, in connection with notions of the Andean weaver, decolonial praxis, and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui’s proposal of a ch’ixi (mottled) identity. Finally, by considering the distinctive approaches of these artists as contemporary kipuskamayocs (kipu experts), and the notion of yanak uywaña (mutual nurturing of the arts), this thesis explores where and how the kipu can introduce aspects of the Andean knowledge into the art gallery and how it can function as a potential decolonial tool in these spaces.