VINE OF THE SPIRITS

(2019) Sculpture in rapadura
10,2 x 6,6 x 1,9 in

About Vine of the Spirits

The book, carved in rapadura (unrefined sugar made from raw cane juice and produced in loaves or blocks) brings in relief an image that refers to a vine with foliage, an allusion to Ayahuasca, (mixture of the Jagube vine - Banisteriopsis caapi, and the Chacrona - Queen Plant - Psychotria viridis), which together are the base of the visionary ritual drink also known as hoasca, daime, yage, santo-daime and vegetal, used by native peoples since time immemorial.

Now, not only Ayahuasca but also Jurema Preta are symbols of the spirituality of the forest and the cerrado, they are the roots of medicine – physical and spiritual, and the communication of these peoples with their ancestors and families (trees, animals and other elements of the Nature).

One of the crucial points for the implantation of the colonization and exploration process in South America was that the culture and religion of the forest had to be erased along with the forest itself, in order to make way for the sugar cane mills. But before the mills came the missions. Before the pioneers arrived to enslave the natives, the missionaries arrived with the mission of catechizing, starting the process of erasing the culture. The planting of sugar cane was carried out on large rural properties called latifundia or plantation. 

* Vine of the Spirits is an offshoot of the Remotis Visum installation. Read below part of the text about the work.

About Remotis Visum

The use of plants, fungi and animal extracts with psychoactive properties are deeply rooted in the spiritual and medicinal practices and rites of passage of native peoples who had their population and culture marginalized, giving way to the law, culture and tradition of the conqueror.

On the other hand, what is inserted in a book can be institutionalized or immortalized, whether in a law manual, a book of rules and conducts, a dictionary or a sacred book; publications have the property of raising their content to the mainstream, of legalizing or inserting a new paradigm in society. The book as an object can represent the law (of men or of God), legality, what is accepted or has institutional support.

The insertion of images of ritualistic and psychoactive plants, fungi and cactus can be seen as a proposal for symbolic historical reparation, or even claiming the place of honor, prominence and power not only of these plants and substances, but of everything they represent.