Indigenous artist Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe is recognised for his drawings and paintings that explore the ancestral traditions and identity of Yanomami culture. Often made with handmade paper crafted from native fibres, Hakihiiwe's works reflect on the cultural and social practices of his native tribe. In 2022, they were included in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams.
Read MoreHakihiiwe was born in Amazonas, Venezuela. He began making art in the 1990s when he met Mexican artist Laura Anderson Barbata. Barbata introduced Hakihiiwe to the practice of making paper from native plant fibres like Shiki and Abaca. Hakihiiwe began to draw and paint on the handmade paper using vegetable ink. His drawings generally depicted a range of abstract shapes, lines, or grids suggestive of the flora and fauna of the Amazon rainforest.
In 1992, Hakihiiwe collaborated with Barbata to establish the Yanomami Owëmamotima Community Project. The project enabled the publication of written and illustrated books made from the collective experience of the Yanomami people.
When Hakihiiwe is in his native environment of the Amazon, he has no communication beyond his tribe's territory. While in the rainforest, Hakihiiwe draws and sketches in a notebook, where he develops a unique system of visual communication. When he travels to Caracas, he translates his illustrations into paintings and screen-prints on fabric or paper.
Hakihiiwe's artwork is minimal and abstract, adopting a reduced colour palette. His work is often viewed as an archive in development because he makes transient cultural traditions permanent. Hakihiiwe's work depicts patterns used in body painting and illustrates ancestral and mythological narratives from Yanomami culture.
'Huwe Moshi' (2017–2018) is a series of drawings Hakihiiwe exhibited with another Venezuelan artist, Luis Romero, at the Venezuelan guerrilla pavilion in London in 2019, staged in response to the failure of the Venezuelan pavilion to open during the preview days of the Venice Biennale. The works are drawings made on stucco cane fibre paper and depict grid-like patterns made from different coloured dotted lines.
The 'Huwe Moshi' series is based on the skin pattern of venomous coral snakes found in the Amazon. Hakihiiwe draws from the nature and wildlife of his homeland while reflecting on Yanomami mythology, where individuals often transform from animal to human. Hakihiiwe's drawings consider the Yanomami cosmology alongside the structure of contemporary Venezuelan society and culture.
Wateoma husipe / Larvas de oruga / Caterpillar larvae (2019) is a painting made from acrylic on stucco cane fibre paper. The painting depicts a pattern of round organic forms that are suggestive of caterpillar larvae huddled together.
For this work, Hakihiiwe found inspiration in living organisms from his native rainforest. By extracting basic shapes and forms from Yanomami culture, Hakihiiwe creates an abstract painting that demonstrates organised structural patterns. The detailed structure portrayed in Wateoma husipe / Larvas de oruga / Caterpillar larvae conveys Hakihiiwe's belief that nature and culture can exist simultaneously.
Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, Rio de Janeiro (2021); Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe: Urihi Theri, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2021); Puhi Tropao (Estar feliz), Museo del Diseño y la Estampa Carlos Cruz-Diez, Caracas (2016); Etnias bajo la piel, Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda, Mexico City (2010).
Group exhibitions include the 59th Venice Biennale (2022); And If I Devoted My Life To One Of Its Feathers?, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2021); Garden of Six Seasons, Para Site, Hong Kong (2020); the 12th Shanghai Biennale (2018).
Phoebe Bradford | Ocula | 2022
