seek the peace of the world.

A major aspect of Sulca’s response to modern violence is the revival and vindication of culture. Sulca seems to be in constant dialogue with Inca and Aymara weaving traditions, which date back at least 1,000 years. He works in punto arwi, an Incan weaving technique revived by his grandfather Ambrosio in the 1920s and only uses hand-spun wool and native Andean dyes. With this technique, Sulca weaves together modern and ancient symbols. Some are easy to decipher: notes on a staff to represent music, for instance, and an easel signifies art in “Gracias a la Vida.”

The symbols may also be recurring shapes of different colors or certain animals that have significance in Inca mythology. The mystery of pre-Hispanic textiles resonates in many of Sulca’s tapestries; “Folding the Past” is really a tapestry of a tapestry, in which symbols fade into the folding cloth like history disappearing into time.

Many of the tapestries in this exhibition have an accompanying story, song, or poem. The closest Sulca gets to literalism is probably “Weaving Life,” which uses the legend of the spider-storyteller to depict the major events of Peruvian history as symbols in a web. In this tapestry the correlation between the story and the symbol is clear and beautifully executed—but not as compelling as when Sulca uses symbols to build a metaphor. Such is the case in “For a Better World,” based on the artist’s own poem, which locates womanhood somewhere between the Christian concept of Eve, and the Andean ideal of a woman whose spirit comes from the mountain.

Sulca’s work is mysterious, but not secretive. If for nothing else, the tapestries succeed for their alluring shapes and colors, but their real beauty is in the stories they carry. Every tapestry displays a drive for the universal, without generalizing the circumstance of tradition. They are clearly meant for sharing.

visual arts

Woven Testimonies: The Andean Tapestries of Edwin Sulca

David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, 61 Kirkland Street, Cambridge

Through June 14, 2002