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Huichol Art

For the Huichols, art is not used as an aesthetic expression but is created to honor, preserve and balance the world and the environment. The Huichol embellish their clothing, yarn paintings and beadwork with symbols and patterns that reference their cosmogony or beliefs, stories and myths. The iconography on their colorful garments as well as their artwork acts as a metaphor for their prayers or offerings to their deities. Some of the most important images used are the deer, peyote cactus, corn, earth, sun, water, fire, and humans. However, there are many other symbols that form their iconography. Also, the complexity of Huichol artwork is not only in the symbols and designs but also in the luminescent colors. Colors define the deities that are being petitioned. As an example blue signifies Rapawiyeme (Rapa is the tree of rain).

All the artwork is produced by individual artists who are taught by their parents and who pass the artistic techniques onto their children. The techniques remain the same from generation to generation. Originally artwork was made as a prayer offering to the gods and left at places of power along their pilgrimage route, which is still practiced. However, today Huichol art is also sold commercially.

Central to the Huichol ritual traditions is the "Nierika" (a sacred magical offering), which is a small square or circular tablet made from stone, clay, wood, or yearn and having a hole in the center. The hole represents a mirror and is used as an entryway into the spiritual world for the creator to communicate with a deity in seeking solutions to a problem or any future challenges. The Nierika also acts as the visual prayer for the creator's request and is artful covered on both sides with intricate symbols and designs using strands of vivid colored yarn.

The imagery is based on their myths, stories, and the creator's personal activities and daily living. Before the creator applies the strands of yarn both sides of the Nierika are covered with a mixture of beeswax and pine resin. The Huichol place these objects in their sacred places such as temples, springs and caves. Each new endeavor requires the creator to make a new Nierika.

Although yarn paintings are created in the likeness of Nierikas, they are not used in ritual rather they are used for commercial purposes. It was not until the early 1960's that Huichol yarn paintings evolved from the traditional Nierika and the first of these paintings were exhibited in Guadalajara in 1962. The evolution of the Huichol yarn paintings has evolved from a simple painting to a story-telling device wherein the artist depicts one of their traditional myths or an aspect of Huichol life for consumers. From its original origins the medium has been transformed from folk craft to fine art not only from a design element but because of the availability of the wide variety of color from commercial dyed and the finer synthetic yarns.

Similar to a Nierika, a yarn painting is produced on a large wooden square that is first covered with beeswax that's used as an adhesive for pressing the yarn onto the board. Huichol yarn paintings are created from the visions and dreams the artist experiences from the hallucinogenic effects of his use of peyote, which is revered by the Huichol as a true gift from the gods. These visions and dreams enable the artist to create complex, dramatic and multicolored artworks, as a direct result of the vision quest and conversation with one of their deities. In essence Huichol yarn paintings are not only visual paintings, but also word paintings expressing the communication that has come directly from the gods. In addition, through peyote's hallucinogenic effects shamanic powers can also be achieved. Part of the overall design of yarn painting is the incorporation of the Peyote Mandalas or Nierika, which symbolize the entrance to the spiritual world.

Another major art form produced by the Huichol is their elaborate beadwork called "Chaquira." This art form of beaded masks, gourd bowls, sticks, eggs, plaques, jaguars, wolves, and spirit figures are usually made for ritual use and are also created from a vision quest after the artist ingests peyote. The process begins by coating the gourd, carving or figurine with a layer of beeswax and pine resin mixture and then the artist meticulously place the beads by hand one-by-one until the artist has completed his vision. Designs are representational of important Huichol symbols or a Nierika telling a story of Huichol mythology.

The beaded gourds (prayer bowls) are often used as votives and left as offerings during pilgrimages. They are also used on altars in the homes and temples of the Huichol people. The interiors of the votive gourds are completely covered with bead designs in an undulating mandala design representing the doorway to the spiritual world and communication with the gods.

Huichol beadwork originated as an art form long before the Spaniards set foot in Mexico. Bone, clay, coral, jade, pyrite, shell, stone turquoise and seeds colored with insect and vegetable dyes were utilized instead of the glass seed beads used today. The seed beads that are used today are finer and smaller and as a result a more detailed work is being created.

Although the Huichol lived for hundreds of years untouched by modernization, in the 1970's the Mexican government enacted a plan to bring them along with other indigenous people into the general society by creating schools, clinics and introducing new agricultural ways. They made it easier to access their lands with roads and airstrips. Ranchers coveted the grassy land they lived on and religious zealots tried to convert them. When water was drained from the mountains and forests disappeared, the game disappeared and the Huichols could no longer perform their traditional ceremonies involving the white-tailed deer.

The Huichol took it upon themselves to try and repopulate the land by trekking 600 miles from their land to Mexico City to obtain 20 white-tailed deer from the city zoo to save the earth and mankind from environmental destruction. They were awarded the National Ecology Prize of Mexico in 1988 for their efforts. Today efforts from many different factions are being made to help the Huichols preserve their traditional culture.

Yarn Paintings

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