The "Joni Chomo", or human ceramic, is an anthropomorphic jar made by the Shipibo-Konibo artist Adela Panduro. Adorned with hand-painted designs that are interpretations of their cosmic beliefs, the Joni Chomo embody a typical ceramic style of the Shipibo people from the upper Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. These jars were typically made for traditional celebrations and is painted with the the traditional Kené (meaning ‘design’, ‘enclosure’ and ‘path’,) a type of artistic expression performed mostly by women from the Shipibo-Konibo community. According to Shipibo-Konibo narratives, women learned how to create their own designs by copying them from the body of a divine woman known as ‘Inka’: a concept which in Shipibo-Konibo language means ‘celestial’. The art of Kené expresses both the symmetry and asymmetry of the cosmic order, passing from the invisible to the visible world.
We believe in long term relationship building with individuals and their communities who have consented to sharing their knowledge with us and the public. As multi-generational migrants, locals and foreigners, we seek to nurture a mutual understanding of the realities, ancestral and present, with our Indigenous collaborators through our practice in order to create didactic audio, visual and written representations of their ancestral knowledge for the benefit of the Indigenous people. Below is an open work of this documentation.
Photography: Davis Torres / Tui Anandi / Mike van Kruchen
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