The Shipibo produce some of the finest pottery in the world. Made by native Shipibo women, the pottery is adorned with hand-painted designs that are interpretations of their cosmic beliefs. By transforming the clay paste into a strong and solid material, the women can create large, thin, coil-built ceramics.
The Shipibo-Konibo have a rich and complex cosmology which have inspired their artistic traditions, notably in their ceramics and textiles. They are animists, and to them animals, vegetation, and non-biological beings have spirits just like humans that have two modes: material and spiritual.
These crocodile statuettes are painted with a Kené (meaning ‘design’, ‘enclosure’ and ‘path’,) a type of artistic expression performed mostly by women from the Shipibo-Konibo community. According to Shipibo-Konibo narratives, women learned how to create their own designs by copying them from the body of a divine woman known as ‘Inka’: a concept which in Shipibo-Konibo language means ‘celestial’. The art of Kené expresses both the symmetry and asymmetry of the cosmic order, passing from the invisible to the visible world. To uncover this immaterial world covered by the Kené, it is needed to establish contact through the form of ritual.
Dimensions (approximate): 25cm x 4cm x 4.5cm
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The Shipibo-Konibo have a rich and complex cosmology which have inspired their artistic traditions, notably in their ceramics and textiles. They are animists, and to them animals, vegetation, and non-biological beings have spirits, just as humans have two modes: material and spiritual.
