Colors & Textures of The Jahuay, Part 1 2012-2013
There is a loud stillness in the air, and the reverberating whistling memories of those summers submerge me into the past. The thin mountain air of the Ecuadorian Andes and the calling of the wind intone with, the primordial calling of the horn and the singing of harvest ritual song of the indigenous people. After graduating college I was hired to join a field research project sponsored by the Institute of Cultural Patrimony of Ecuador (a branch of the Ecuadorian government) as a photographer, painter and translator. Mario Godoy Aguirre was the creator, head historical researcher and musicologist, of this project. The project recovered and documented the ritual harvest songs of the Andean Indigenous communities of Chimborazo, Ecuador. These songs date back at least 500 years in Ecuadorian history and were in danger of disappearing.
As my personal reaction to the fieldwork project I created “Colors & Textures of the Jahuay,” a twenty painting series exhibition, that represents the different key participants of the Jahuay, while chronologically narrating the different parts of the ritual. My paintings and photographs explore the humanistic, cultural aspects of the indigenous Andean people of Ecuador.. The fieldwork was completed in the summer of 2012. I have shown the Jahuay series in seven solo exhibitions from 2013 to 2015, six in Ecuador, and one in Hungary.
This series enabled me to learn first hand about my indigenous roots, since my maternal grandmother was of indigenous descent , of the Puruah people of this area. As such learning about this ritual gave me great insight into what my grandmother lived through during the time she was forced to work for one of the largest hacienda owners ( as a cook) of Chimborazo Province, where this song comes from. She died when I was only 12 and I barey got to know her. But seeing and hearing the songs ( which were later translatated to spanish), I got to learn invaluable knowledge about my heritage.
This portfolio is the first half of tht series