The Huichol cultures produce art that uses images of animals and other motifs from nature, such as the sun or flowers, to symbolically record their history and ideas. The Huichol are best known for making wooden or papier-mâché sculptures that are coated with beeswax and then covered with colorful nature motifs formed using tiny, imported glass seed beads or brightly colored yarn. These decorative sculptures are often the work of male or female ritual specialists who serve as healers and intermediaries between people and the supernatural. The ritual specialists may ingest hallucinogenic plants such as peyote or mushrooms, and their visions are said to inspire the multicolored sculptures that they produce. Originally, yarn paintings, or nierikas, were produced only in two-dimensional form as small, flat yarn paintings no larger than 24 centimeters square, and these were said to be offerings to the Huichol gods during vision journeys. As shown by this Huichol bird, however, yarn paintings are now produced in three-dimensional form. Researched by Joakima Day

 

 

For more information, you may contact the researcher(s) noted in the title of this exhibit entry, or Dr. Billie Follensbee, the professor of the course, at BillieFollensbee@MissouriState.edu