Portraits of the Multiverse
Ana Sotelo
“Portraits of the Multiverse” is a visual investigation between Sadith Silvano, master of the Shipibo “Kené’’ artform and myself. Started in 2022, the project generates a visual dialogue about the Amazonian multiverse by combining photography with ancestral Kené embroidery. Our collaboration addresses sustainability from an environmental and cultural perspective, questioning the colonial fracture that separates the human from the non-human when considering the natural world. By incorporating this ancestral language into images, the series invites the viewer to consider memory and spirit in contemporary representations of the Amazon.
The photographs, captured on the banks of the Shanay-Timpishka and Nanay Rivers, represent nearly eight years of my exploration with healing in the Amazon rainforest. In them, I showcase elements of Amazonia using photography while Sadith reveals the immaterial energy that flows across the jungle using kené embroidery. Kené, the visual language of the Shipibo people, represents the invisible energy of their universe. In a transition from the invisible world to the visible and back to the invisible, this series develops a dialogue about the Amazonian multiverse. The resulting series is a visual encounter between two languages that capture light through different means: photography and embroidery .
Ronin, Serpent Spirit of the UniversePOS AS 742 1
Petition to the Plant SpiritsPOS AS 742 2
Came Renaco, Healing TreePOS AS 742 3
Came Renaco Bark for Preparing MedicinePOS AS 742 4
Ayahuasca, Master PlantPOS AS 742 5
MeliponaPOS AS 742 6
The Shanay Timpishka River (image 1 of 2-image diptych)POS AS 742 7
The Shanay Timpishka River (image 2 of 2-image diptych)POS AS 742 8
Spirits of the JunglePOS AS 742 9
MermaidPOS AS 742 10