Weaving with bones, part 2

More notes from my artist residency in the mountains of Argentina

Jun 21, 2024

At Finca San Jose de la Viña, I worked up the hill from the main house, in an old rabbit hutch, which was snugged up to the edge of a vegetable garden, shaded by massive avocado trees, adjacent to a crumbling swimming pool. The pool’s walls are a fading and cracked yellow, and despite being out of use, it is still fed by the mountain river’s water, which is led by a series of canals and chutes to fall shimmering into the pool below. I hauled many buckets of water from this stream down to my workspace for scrubbing and washing.

Each day when I finished my work, I rigged a barricade of barrels and buckets and bits and bobs to keep the farm dogs out—I had found a few gnawed bones scattered around the tilled soil in the vegetable garden next door. Apparently, piles of bones are just impossible to resist.

Working in three dimensions was completely new for me—I’m primarily a painter, and my background is in digital design. So stepping into sculptural experiments was a big stretch! The rib bones’ elegant curvatures were each unique, requiring strategic placement and interweaving; I rigged up a system of guides with string and sticks to help me keep some vertical alignment (for my designer friends, it was a little like bringing Illustrator or Figma grids to life).

I suspended the tapestries from the rafters of the building so that I could work from both front and back of the pieces—it was essential to construct them while hanging, to accommodate the curvature of the bones.

As I completed the works, I began to feel that the workspace itself could be used as a temporary exhibition site. After clearing away all my tools and supplies, the space indeed felt right.

In the final days of the residency, we invited friends, family, and neighbors to join us at dusk for a full experience of the work, which combined the three finished Temple Guardians sculptures with lighting and some ephemeral floor installations.

These pieces remain on the land in Salta. The Temple Guardians will flank the entrance of the healing / transformational space that is to be built onsite; this concept came to me very early in the planning stages for this project. Later, with some research, I was reminded that ancient temples throughout Japan, China, and India feature monumental-scale statues of warriors or protector spirits on either side of their entryways.

Take a look here for a few more install / process images.

This land offered an incomparable environment for artistic growth and exploration. The residency on Finca San Jose de la Viña was a true game-changer for my artistic career and I’m planning to continue work in this vein back home… and wherever else I can find bones.

I must mention some of the generous humans present on this land, who supported my project in unique and oh-so-needed ways. A few of them here: Teresa, one of my wonderful hosts, helping prototype a new idea; Nico, who handled everything from horseback rides to paellas to sourcing hard-to-find copper wire; Anguila, who fabricated the cauldron; Mariela and Alejandra, who prepared incredibly delicious, healthy food every day. And of course, Marianna—my friend, host, and bone collecting co-conspirator.