Belkis Ayón, Sikán 1991. Tate. © reserved.
11 rooms in In the Studio
These artists have used paper in unexpected ways to create prints and sculptures
The artworks of the two artists in this room draw upon specific indigenous belief systems to explore the position of women in society and in nature.
Belkis Ayón (1967–1999) was a Cuban printmaker who specialised in a printmaking process called collography. To create a printing plate, she glued various materials – ranging from sandpaper to vegetable peelings – to cardboard. Once inked, the plate was used to imprint the design onto paper.
Throughout her lifetime, Ayón created allegorical scenes based on Abakuá, a secret, Afro-Cuban brotherhood. Abakuá is part of a belief-system that enslaved people from southern Nigeria and Cameroon brought to Cuba during the transatlantic slave trade. It became one of Cuba’s main religious-cultural groups. Ayón particularly focuses on the only female character, Princess Sikán, connecting her with the struggles of women in the patriarchal society of Cuba: ‘Sikán’s image is paramount in all these works because, like myself, she led and leads a disquieting life, looking insistently for a way out.’
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (born 1967) grew up during General Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year military regime in Chile, later relocating to Germany. Since 1997, she has developed her own form of sculptural drawing. She applies graphite and watercolour to folded paper before dipping it in beeswax, making the paper rigid.
Her sculptural drawing displayed here is a representation of the revered Inca goddess Pachamama, or Mother Earth, who presides over harvest and fertility. Vásquez de la Horra highlights similarities between the outline of the woman’s body and the mountainous landscape of the Andes. ‘We are one with the nature,’ she says.
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Awake I Wait for You 2022
Awake I Wait for You is a double-sided, folded paper work in which accordion-like folds give the paper a sculptural, three-dimensional quality. Graphite and watercolour have been used to draw on and colour the paper, which has been rendered solid by having been dipped in beeswax, a process the artist initiated in 1997, marking a transition in her work from small scale drawings to working in three dimensions. These accordion-like folded works, also known as leporelli, are presented upright in a display case. This particular work, made by the artist in her Berlin studio in 2022, depicts a naked woman lying down, her hands crossed over her lower abdomen. Her posture, as well as the work’s title, evoke a lover awaiting her partner or a mother expecting a child. Those are two of the many representations of Mother Earth, or Pachamama, an Inca goddess revered within Indigenous cosmologies, and notably in the artist’s native Chile. Describing the work, the artist highlighted similarities between the outline of the woman’s body and the mountainous landscape of the Andes (conversation between the artist and Tate curator Valentine Umansky, 2022). Each side of the leporello displays a different range of colours: dark browns to greys on one side, and vivid oranges, yellows and reds on the other.
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artworks in Belkis Ayón and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Belkis Ayón, Sikán 1991
Sikán 1991 is a four-part collagraphic print on paper originally conceived in 1991 and printed in 1992 in an edition of four of which this copy is number four. The four sheets abut and combine to make one image depicting a three-quarter-length portrait of a female figure seated on a black throne. The figure represents Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘ I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)This print is a companion piece to another that depicts Sikán’s boyfriend Mokongo using a similar four-part format (Mokongo 1991, printed 1992 [Tate T15906]). In the Abakuá story, Sikan discovers and then divulges to Mokongo a secret that she hears from a sacred fish, which leads to a war between tribes and eventually she is sacrificed for her transgression. Ayón represents Sikán with a fishbowl in her lap and a white serpent slithering over her left shoulder, sitting in front of a backdrop crowned by a large white fish. In Mokongo the snake-like form is draped across the leg of the figure. Although the snake could refer to the mystic powers of a diviner who keeps watch over Sikán, Ayón is also playing upon Christian iconography of Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, and another female figure also blamed for a transgression. Sikán is also the central figure in Ayón’s six-sheet print The Supper 1991 (Tate T15985), another work that places the female figure at the centre of an image that combines Abakuá culture and Christian iconography.Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:
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artworks in Belkis Ayón and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Belkis Ayón, The Supper 1991
The Supper 1991 is a large six-part collagraphic print on paper that is over three metres in width. The six sheets abut and combine to make one image that depicts, in white in the centre, the figure of Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Sikán is shown alongside three androgynous figures seated at a table that takes up the entire width of the composition; six other figures stand in the background. Each figure is delineated by a different decorative pattern that is applied across their entire body so that they appear as flat two-dimensional forms with almond-shaped eyes as their only facial feature. While the gender of each figure is ambiguous, the artist has identified the central character as Sikán and suggested that the two figures with dark black faces are male. One of these is Mokongo, Sikán’s boyfriend, who is also depicted in Ayón’s print Mokongo 1991 (Tate T15906). The composition of The Supper imagines the initiation banquet of Abakuá while also referencing Christian imagery of the Last Supper. The plates of fish placed on the table likely refer to a central narrative of the Abakuá group: that of a secret told to Sikán by a sacred fish, which gave her tribe, the Efo, power over their rivals, the Efik. Background patterns of crosses and circles reference the two tribes, and are based upon a version of the nsibidi system of symbols that originated in Nigeria. Ayón had originally depicted this scene using a range of vibrant colours, but for this version changed them to tones of black, grey and white to emphasise Sikán’s central role in the story as well as her isolation. The Supper is one of Ayón’s most iconic works and marks a shift in her practice from colour to the black-and-white that would come to define her mature style (see also Sikán 1991, [Tate T15907]).Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘ I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:
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artworks in Belkis Ayón and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Belkis Ayón, Mokongo 1992
Mokongo 1991 is a four-part collagraphic print on paper originally conceived in 1991 and printed in 1992 in an edition of four. The four sheets abut and combine to make one image depicting a semi-nude male figure sitting on a throne, holding a staff, with a white snake draped over his leg. This stately portrait portrays Prince Mokongo, the partner of Princess Sikán, the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but, as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. In the Abakuá story Sikán divulges a secret to Mokongo, which leads to a war between tribes and Sikán’s eventual sacrifice for her transgression. Mokongo sees the rare re-introduction of colour into her collographs, albeit in a muted way, in the leopard-skin cloak draped over the seated figure of the prince. It likely refers to the skin upon which the two warring tribes are said to have signed a peace treaty. The rich texture and yellow colour of the animal skin contrast with the stark white, black and grey of the rest of the composition. Mokongo is a companion piece to another print that depicts Princess Sikán using a similar four-part format (Sikán 1991, printed 1992 [Tate T15907]). Sikán and Mokongo both appear in Ayón’s six-sheet print The Supper 1991 (Tate T15985), another work that places the female figure at the centre of an image that combines Abakuá culture and Christian iconography.Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:
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artworks in Belkis Ayón and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Art in this room
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Awake I Wait for You
2022
Belkis Ayón
Sikán
1991
Belkis Ayón
The Supper
1991
Belkis Ayón
Mokongo
1992