{"id":3629,"date":"2023-06-26T05:20:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T05:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leslieosterling.com\/exposition-haeir-loom\/curatorial-text\/"},"modified":"2023-06-27T02:08:08","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T02:08:08","slug":"curatorial-text","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/curatorial-text\/","title":{"rendered":"Curatorial text"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"3629\" class=\"elementor elementor-3629 elementor-3537\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ba2b450 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"ba2b450\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cdc4a04 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"cdc4a04\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4a10ffe elementor-widget elementor-widget-template\" data-id=\"4a10ffe\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"template.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-template\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"container\" data-elementor-id=\"3390\" class=\"elementor elementor-3390\" data-elementor-post-type=\"elementor_library\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1334f8c2 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"1334f8c2\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-735ef58e elementor-hidden-mobile_extra elementor-hidden-mobile elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"735ef58e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"196\" height=\"298\" src=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/logo-loom.svg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-3273\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3ecade97 elementor-nav-menu__align-start elementor-hidden-mobile_extra elementor-hidden-mobile elementor-nav-menu--dropdown-tablet elementor-nav-menu__text-align-aside elementor-nav-menu--toggle elementor-nav-menu--burger elementor-widget elementor-widget-nav-menu\" data-id=\"3ecade97\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;layout&quot;:&quot;vertical&quot;,&quot;submenu_icon&quot;:{&quot;value&quot;:&quot;&lt;svg 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menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-3640\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/curatorial-text\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\">Curatorial text<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-3638\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/about-the-project\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\">About the project<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-3637\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/about-the-artist\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\">About the artist<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-3639\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/credits-and-acknowledgements\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\">Credits and Acknowledgements<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\t\t\t<\/nav>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-menu-toggle\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Menu Toggle\" aria-expanded=\"false\">\n\t\t\t<svg aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"elementor-menu-toggle__icon--open e-font-icon-svg e-eicon-menu-bar\" viewBox=\"0 0 1000 1000\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M104 333H896C929 333 958 304 958 271S929 208 896 208H104C71 208 42 237 42 271S71 333 104 333ZM104 583H896C929 583 958 554 958 521S929 458 896 458H104C71 458 42 487 42 521S71 583 104 583ZM104 833H896C929 833 958 804 958 771S929 708 896 708H104C71 708 42 737 42 771S71 833 104 833Z\"><\/path><\/svg><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"elementor-menu-toggle__icon--close e-font-icon-svg e-eicon-close\" viewBox=\"0 0 1000 1000\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M742 167L500 408 258 167C246 154 233 150 217 150 196 150 179 158 167 167 154 179 150 196 150 212 150 229 154 242 171 254L408 500 167 742C138 771 138 800 167 829 196 858 225 858 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href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/about-the-project\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\" tabindex=\"-1\">About the project<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-3637\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/about-the-artist\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\" tabindex=\"-1\">About the artist<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-3639\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/exposition-haeir-loom\/credits-and-acknowledgements\/\" class=\"elementor-item menu-link\" tabindex=\"-1\">Credits and Acknowledgements<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\t\t\t<\/nav>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-760ab0e2 elementor-hidden-mobile_extra elementor-hidden-mobile elementor-hidden-widescreen elementor-hidden-desktop elementor-hidden-laptop elementor-hidden-tablet_extra elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"760ab0e2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>EMBASSY OF PERU IN<br \/>THE UNITED KINGDOM<br \/>\u2014<br \/>28th of June \u2013 19th of July, 2023<br \/>Monday to Friday: 10 am \u2013 4 pm<br \/>\u2014<br \/>15 Buckingham Gate<br \/>London SW1E 6LB<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a119abc elementor-hidden-mobile_extra elementor-hidden-mobile elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a119abc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Haeirloom-LONDON-DESIGN-BIENNALE-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Haeirloom LONDON DESIGN BIENNALE<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8588066 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"8588066\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;,&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7c172b1 elementor-hidden-widescreen elementor-hidden-desktop elementor-hidden-laptop elementor-hidden-tablet_extra elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"7c172b1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"431\" height=\"32\" src=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/logo-hairloom-mobile.svg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-3439\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-51b540d e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"51b540d\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;,&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-fd53e35 elementor-hidden-widescreen elementor-hidden-desktop elementor-hidden-laptop elementor-hidden-tablet_extra elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"fd53e35\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#elementor-action%3Aaction%3Dpopup%3Aopen%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6MzQ0OSwidG9nZ2xlIjpmYWxzZX0%3D\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"48\" height=\"30\" src=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/menu-hamburguer.svg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-3442\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9453c52 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"9453c52\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e57cfb0 elementor-hidden-widescreen elementor-hidden-desktop elementor-hidden-laptop elementor-hidden-tablet_extra elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e57cfb0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Haeirloom-LONDON-DESIGN-BIENNALE-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Haeirloom LONDON DESIGN BIENNALE<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-77e0dea elementor-hidden-widescreen elementor-hidden-desktop elementor-hidden-laptop elementor-hidden-tablet_extra elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-widget-mobile_extra__width-inherit elementor-hidden-mobile_extra elementor-hidden-mobile elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"77e0dea\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>EMBASSY OF PERU IN THE UNITED KINGDOM<br \/>\u2014<br \/>28th of June \u2013 19th of July, 2023<br \/>Monday to Friday: 10 am \u2013 4 pm<br \/>\u2014<br \/>15 Buckingham Gate \u2022 London SW1E 6LB<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9a35260 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"9a35260\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ff3b06d elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ff3b06d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div style=\"font-size: 25px;\">H\u00c6ir<br>\nLoom<\/div><br>\nOllantaytambo\u2019s<br>\n(POST)<br>\nModern<br>\nweavers\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1614461 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1614461\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\u2014 I \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Her \/ Hair \/ Heir \/ Heirloom&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Can a play on words play out the polysemy of images?<br \/>The conundrum of their entanglement<br \/>with a history yearning to be collective.<br \/>But inevitably unravelled in multiple, singular, stories.<\/p>\n<p>Such as those of the ordinary \/ extraordinary women<br \/>captured by these intriguing photographs of the everyday doings<br \/>of an eccentric start-up initiated barely a year ago<br \/>in Huayronccoyoc Pampa, at the outskirts of Ollantaytambo: <br \/>one of Cuzco\u2019s most paradoxical towns,<br \/>submerged in history, in geography, in geology itself,<br \/>and at the same time threatened <br \/>by the disturbing effects of mass tourism<br \/>that convert its ancient culture<br \/>\u2014and nature\u2014<br \/>into a thematic park.<\/p>\n<p>A once small, semirural community, <br \/>with outstanding Inka origins, and monuments,<br \/>transfigured by the tantalizing bounties <br \/>derived from its transformation into the most important outpost <br \/>on route to the dreamlands of Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n<p>Driven by complex personal reasons<br \/>\u2014alopecia\u2014<br \/>Kiara Kulisic moved from Lima to the fringes <br \/>of that now cosmopolitan village,<br \/>intent on establishing a home-grown production <br \/>of high-quality wigs<br \/>manually made, by native hands, with natural hair.<\/p>\n<p>With motivations of her own, but similarly painful <br \/>\u2014cancer\u2014<br \/>Leslie Osterling accompanied that project<br \/>through a sequence of photographic forays <br \/>that gradually procured<br \/>the enticing set of images now in exhibition.<\/p>\n<p>Now exposed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 II \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Exposed in their narrative, as well as in their artistry.<br \/>There is something liberating in these pictures. <br \/>Almost libertarian.<br \/>Inscribed in them we can ponder the emancipatory potential<br \/>of such innovative enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>Particularly for rural women:<br \/>the insertion they thus attain in a different market economy<br \/>permits them to acquire not just a trade but a certain autonomy. <br \/>And, above all, a sense of agency that loosens their entrapment <br \/>within the twin constraints of their disrupted community.<\/p>\n<p>Ollantaytambo\u2019s (post)modern weavers <br \/>manage to elude some (some) of the archaic burdens <br \/>placed on the feminine condition by peasant societies.<br \/>But they do so without falling prey to the bastardizing demands <br \/>of turning their real selves into the congealed simulacra <br \/>of an essentialized identity paraded as a banal commodity <br \/>for quick tourist consumption.<\/p>\n<p>These women do not perform their identity. <br \/>They metabolize it. <br \/>They are not spoken by the past,<br \/>although the past undeniably inhabits them.<br \/>They translate it into their present, actual, existences. <br \/>In a plural sense that recognizes, and enhances, <br \/>their contemporary singularities.<\/p>\n<p>Each one of them has a name.<br \/>A proper, individual name. <br \/>Written into the very title of each photograph.<br \/>And thus, subtly but incisively, <br \/>into the semiotic texture woven around the pictures.<br \/>Through the images themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 III \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Through the images and their context:<br \/>their at times dramatic settings, <br \/>that might seem staged, <br \/>but are also part of the factual surroundings <br \/>of their everyday lives.<\/p>\n<p>The homes, the workshop, the land, the landscape.<br \/>The intricate knitting of it all in photographs<br \/>that are as exact as they are tender. <br \/>And poignant. Or surreal.<br \/>As in that picture of one of the weaver\u2019s spontaneous breastfeeding<br \/>under the watchful gaze of the mannequin heads,<br \/>with their sewn hairdos halfway into the making. <br \/>And the cell phones casually lying on the worktable.<\/p>\n<p>Or those solo portraits of her companions<br \/>silently handling their weaving.<br \/>Some of them<br \/>\u2014 Juanabel Pillco Sol\u00eds, Flor de Mar\u00eda Coronel Quispe \u2014 <br \/>almost Vermeer like under the light that flows upon them <br \/>from the windows hinted at their side.<br \/>Next to an orchid.<br \/>Or by a glaring and yet mute vessel <br \/>made of plastic and glass.<\/p>\n<p>But how their eyes confront us.<br \/>Placidly.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 IV \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Placidly. Or enigmatically. <\/p>\n<p>There is a hieratic ambivalence in such semblances. <br \/>To the point of becoming allegorical <br \/>in the two more ambitious portraits. <br \/>Maritza Baca Espinoza and Claudia Ccahua Huaman, <br \/>statically posed in front of an imposing lithic formation,<br \/>or next to the trapezoidal niche of a crumbling Inka ruin.<\/p>\n<p>But that architectural detail,<br \/>so suffused with ancestral connotations<br \/>\u2014nearly a shrine\u2014,<br \/>surrenders its recesses to the display <br \/>of a startlingly blonde wig. <br \/>Or not quite: <br \/>the visibly dark roots of those transformed hairs <br \/>betray their dyed nature. <br \/>Their nature betrayed, and redeemed, <br \/>through the paradoxical arts of artifice.<\/p>\n<p>Of reverse appropriation, of empowerment even:<br \/>what in other contexts would suggest a commercial exhibit<br \/>in this placement evokes <br \/>the phantom image of a trophy head.<br \/>Culturally repossessed. <br \/>Reembodied by the very attributes of these models<br \/>enhancing their own loose hairs entwined with hair extensions <br \/>of surprising hues.<br \/>Gray, or grayish, with a hint of blue.<br \/>Or redundantly black.<br \/>Unapologetically modern.<\/p>\n<p>(Post)modern:<br \/>Claudia has been photographed here deliberately barefoot.<br \/>And almost bundled in native garbs.<br \/>But sportsy trousers seem to lurk <br \/>from beneath her lavishly woven poncho.<br \/>And in the other portrait Maritza\u2019s entire attire <br \/>is of cheap synthetic manufacture&#8230;<br \/>&#8230;save for the indigenous mantle in which she holds, <br \/>and exhibits, and hides,<br \/>the treasure of her child protected from our gaze <br \/>by that native fabric.<\/p>\n<p>And by the artificial hair <br \/>that prolongs her own natural capillary threads,<br \/>interlaced by the lens into the very texture and design<br \/>of the traditional garment cloaking her heir.<\/p>\n<p>Or heiress.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 V\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Her heir, her hair, her heirloom.<br \/>Not an inheritance but a heritage.<br \/>A legacy, no matter how awkwardly assumed as such.<\/p>\n<p>In yet another elaborated solo portrait, <br \/>Luzmarina Silva, Claudia\u2019s pubescent daughter,<br \/>contemplates her own unfocused image<br \/>vaguely reflected on a mirror in the background.<br \/>But what hits our sight, in full close-up detail, <br \/>is the dashing cascade <br \/>of her gorgeously black, glimmering hair. <br \/>A precious token of primordial beauty,<br \/>underscored by the typical design motifs in her lliklla,<br \/>the traditional Andean shawl.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, the animal figure hanging from the glass<br \/>\u2014the looking glass\u2014 <br \/>is in fact a cheap trinket.<br \/>A llama key chain, <br \/>massively produced for the tourist trade, <br \/>and here blurred by the same effect<br \/>that blurs the girl\u2019s semblance as well.<\/p>\n<p>The mirage of identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 VI \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Identity as phantasm, as fantasy, as fantasia.<br \/>With sometimes spiritual undertones,<br \/>brought to the surface in two almost religious photographs:<br \/>the aura of those open hands<br \/>\u2014faces unseen\u2014<br \/>holding the hairs recently cropped, or dyed.<\/p>\n<p>An offering.<\/p>\n<p>The longing, the lingering, of an atemporal existence,<br \/>duly queried in the remaining photographs <br \/>by the real-time of really lived lives. <br \/>In all their complexity and contradiction.<\/p>\n<p>A keen response to the tautology <br \/>of so many conventional images<br \/>content to re-produce a static, essentialist image of identity<br \/>as a primeval and eternal given. Softly kitsch.<\/p>\n<p>Softly acknowledged <br \/>\u2014and reversed\u2014 <br \/>by subtle but crucial inclusions <br \/>in Leslie\u2019s constructed images.<br \/>Or in her intuitive captures of what is already present.<br \/>Already given.<\/p>\n<p>As in the large, tired poster <br \/>adorning a bright blue wall of the only bedroom <br \/>at Juanabels\u2019s home: <br \/>a native girl in smiling native attire, <br \/>accompanied by an endearing llama, <br \/>with the high hills as their inevitable backdrop.<\/p>\n<p>An identity-pose<br \/>that Leslie\u2019s broader capture <br \/>registers in its close proximity<br \/>to the thoroughly westernized school trappings <br \/>\u2014Captain America and all\u2014<br \/>accompanying the portrait of Juanabel\u2019s own son. <br \/>While traditional religious images <br \/>lie somewhat hidden on a sidewall.<\/p>\n<p>A mise en abyme<br \/>of the fetching counterpoints prodding our eyes<br \/>throughout the exhibition.<br \/>A revelation inscribed not just in the photographer\u2019s gaze<br \/>but in the actual home-made aesthetics of its subjects.<br \/>And literally painted onto the fa\u00e7ades of their community\u2019s houses,<br \/>enclosed by majestic Andean landmarks<br \/>but identified with English signs<br \/>(\u201cClaudia House\u201d, \u201cElizabeth House\u201d)<br \/>courtesy of the Australian ONG responsible <br \/>for the reconstruction of the village <br \/>after its obliteration by an avalanche.<\/p>\n<p>These are such stuff that dreams are made on.<br \/>The very mortar of a culture <br \/>inevitably impure and contaminated,<br \/>reinventing itself despite all essentialist demands.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond identity.<br \/>Beyond the appeasing gratifications of a naturalized origin.<\/p>\n<p>Mystified.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 VII \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Beyond identity.<br \/>And willing to confront the inescapable challenges <br \/>of their subject\u2019s hybrid existences.<\/p>\n<p>Maritza\u2019s daughter, for example.<br \/>Lizete Adriana Avil\u00e9s, <br \/>the girl with a makeshift cosmopolitan outfit <br \/>flaunting her golden wig while standing tall<br \/>on an ancestral boulder. And next to the remnants <br \/>of an ancient house built out of mud bricks <br \/>with still intricate geometric designs&#8230;<br \/>&#8230;in jarring rhyme with the industrial patterns<br \/>adorning her modish pants and glaring footwear.<\/p>\n<p>That glare might well be the decisive moment<br \/>in some of Leslie\u2019s more disquieting images.<\/p>\n<p>The contrived neon glitters that pervasively infiltrate <br \/>the domestic attributes of the weavers\u2019 true lifestyles.<\/p>\n<p>The sneakers, some jackets, every plastic clothespin <br \/>and even the synthetic chord that holds these last, <br \/>almost inadvertently, <br \/>in the posed portrait of Juanabel,<br \/>and her children, and her dog,<br \/>in front of their cement house.<br \/>In the midst of an exuberant countryside <br \/>nowhere to be found <br \/>in this particular take.<\/p>\n<p>But everywhere breathable.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 VIII\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Their yet unpainted house of cement.<br \/>What colours shall bring life to those surfaces?<br \/>Are they expectant or are they deprived?<\/p>\n<p>It is tempting to perceive <br \/>in these pictures\u2019 continuous counterpoints and intrusions<br \/>something akin to what Roland Barthes <br \/>famously denominated the punctum of the photograph.<\/p>\n<p>But the punctum, as Barthes would have it, is non-deliberate.<br \/>It belongs to the realm of the unconscious of the image.<br \/>It is not demonstrated by the photograph <br \/>\u2014the photographer\u2014<br \/>but revealed <br \/>by the wounded personal gaze of the beholder.<\/p>\n<p>My gaze, for example, pricked above all<br \/>by the sense of lack in that last picture.<br \/>The unpainted wall, the missing husband,<br \/>the absent father, <br \/>the nature known to surround it all<br \/>but cloistered out of the camera\u2019s frame.<\/p>\n<p>Only to overwhelm us<br \/>in a single, major, photograph,<br \/>conceived as an almost telluric abstraction<br \/>of the utter, the solemn silence, of the apu:<br \/>the grand sacred mountain,<br \/>freckled with nearly imperceptible archaeological remains.<\/p>\n<p>Cultura fused into natura<br \/>in an animistic cosmos<br \/>that reigns<br \/>over the weaver\u2019s homes and their fields.<br \/>Soon to be radically transformed.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 IX \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps that suspense is the latent tension <br \/>that so energizes these images.<br \/>An expectancy in some point ominous,<br \/>and yet gravid with a certain <br \/>\u2014uncertain\u2014 <br \/>element of hope.<\/p>\n<p>A force to be glimpsed even in those apparently warm<br \/>\u2014but severe\u2014<br \/>photographs that picture together all the weavers <br \/>\u2014Kiara included\u2014<br \/>displaying their assortment of wigs<br \/>while horizontally lined up under the goal<br \/>of a football field in Huayronccoyoc Pampa.<\/p>\n<p>Or randomly strewn in a bright but hidden garden.<br \/>With the mild flowers and the quiet greenery <br \/>somehow unsettled by the entangled mixture <br \/>of hairs, of fabrics, of skins.<\/p>\n<p>The secret gardens of identity.<br \/>Their conundrums, their cryptic rhymes.<br \/>Delicately inserted into the images,<br \/>by the images\u2019 own structural paradox.<\/p>\n<p>The analogy <br \/>\u2014and the friction\u2014<br \/>that relates the orderly line-up of weavers<br \/>with the irregular profile of the mountain range.<\/p>\n<p>Looming over the horizon.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Coda \u2014<\/p>\n<p><em>Looming<\/em>:<br \/>It is (melo)dramatically appropriate for this text<br \/>to find closure in pointing out the also textile connotations<br \/>of that highly charged term.<\/p>\n<p>And its free association with the subverted notion of legacy,<br \/>linguistically woven here into its very subject.<br \/>Its very anatomy.<\/p>\n<p><em>H\u00e6irloom<\/em>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6a38ae1 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"6a38ae1\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;,&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-67759b7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"67759b7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Gustavo Buntinx<\/strong><br \/>Curator<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>H\u00c6ir Loom Ollantaytambo\u2019s (POST) Modern weavers \u2014 I \u2014 Her \/ Hair \/ Heir \/ Heirloom&#8230; Can a play on words play out the polysemy of images?The conundrum of their entanglementwith a history yearning to be collective.But inevitably unravelled in multiple, singular, stories. Such as those of the ordinary \/ extraordinary womencaptured by these intriguing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3626,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3629","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3629\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieosterling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}