March 8, 2018

In February, an exhibition called “Super/Natural: Textiles of the Andes” opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition features numerous textiles (woven fabrics) and other items created by the ancient Andean cultures of South America. These textiles were traditionally worn as clothing, but they also were used for communication and artistic and religious expression among the diverse peoples of the desert coasts and mountain highlands of the Andean region.

The “Super/Natural” textile exhibition includes this otherworldly figure holding a wild Pampas cat. Credit: Mantle (detail) (100 BC/AD 200), Wool embroidered in stem stitches by Paracas Necropolis; Emily Crane Chadbourne Fund/The Art Institute of Chicago

Textile creation in the Andes dates at least to the ancient Chavín culture (900 B.C. to 200 B.C.) in what is now Peru. The Chavín developed a backstrap loom and many of the techniques that weavers in the Andes still use today. In a backstrap loom, a strap on one end of the loom wraps around the weaver’s back. The weaver attaches the other end to a solid object such as a tree and leans or sits back to pull a set of yarns called the warp taut. 

The above textile, a product of the Paraca culture (500 B.C. to A.D. 200) in Peru, is a detail from a mantle (cloak) included in the “Super/Natural” exhibition. The figure holds a Pampas cat, a powerful predator and protector of agricultural fields. The individual appears to channel otherworldly power, as colored streamers emerge from the mouth and down the back, suggesting that the figure embodies the supernatural forces believed to govern the natural world. This type of representation is common throughout the Andes. Among the Nazca, a culture that emerged after the Paracas, woven textiles and painted vessels depict similar imagery. Individuals dressed in ornate costumes and wearing whiskered masks suggest transformation and connection between the natural and supernatural worlds. Later, such Andean cultures as the Wari, Chimú, and Inca also created intricate textiles for a variety of uses.

The “Super/Natural” exhibition features over 60 ancient textiles along with a number of Andean ceramics from the Art Institute’s collection. The exhibition highlights the unique aspects of individual Andean cultures while also demonstrating the similarities among them. The artistic objects deal with everyday life, the natural world, the supernatural world, and the afterlife.