Cecilia Vicuña: Skyscraper Quipu — Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948, Santiago, Chile). *Skyscraper Quipu* (Incan *quipu* performance, New York), 2006. Rephotographed 2018. Cotton, dimensions variable. Collection of the artist. © Cecilia Vicuña. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong. (Photo: Matthew Herrmann)

Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948, Santiago, Chile). Skyscraper Quipu (Incan quipu performance, New York), 2006. Rephotographed 2018. Cotton, dimensions variable. Collection of the artist. © Cecilia Vicuña. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong. (Photo: Matthew Herrmann)

Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948, Santiago, Chile). Quipu Inscribed (projection study for a presentation at the American Museum of Natural History, New York), 2008. Performance with unspun wool and projection, dimensions variable. © Cecilia Vicuña. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong. (Photo: Diana Fruscio)

Cecilia Vicuña and visitors with Quipu Gut (installation at Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany), 2017. Mixed media, unspun dyed wool, dimensions variable. Collection of Lehmann Maupin, New York, New York. © Cecilia Vicuña. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong

Inca artist. Administrative Quipu, 1400–1532. South Coast, Peru. Cotton, 15³/₈ x 30⁵/₁₆ in. (39 x 77 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Ernest Erickson, 70.177.69. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum)

This administrative quipu, which consists of three different quipus attached along the primary cord, was used to record statistical information, such as taxes, census data, and storehouse inventories.

Administrative quipus are characterized by pendant cords with tiers of knots separated by spaces that indicate decimal values—what we would understand as the individual columns of digits in a numbering system, such as units (1 through 9), tens, hundreds, and thousands. The twist direction of the cords is almost always Z-spun and S-plied. The Inca used three main knots (visible on this quipu) to signify numerical values: figure-eight knots, long knots, and single knots. Each knot type signified a different unit of measurement.

Cord color also had significance; however, its meaning is at present unknown. The plain white, reddish-brown, and tan cords on the right are blanks for future use.

Nasca artist. Poncho, 100–200. South Coast, Peru. Camelid fiber, 74⁷/₁₆ x 27⁹/₁₆ in. (189.1 x 70 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Alfred W. Jenkins Fund, 34.1579

This large panel is the most elaborate example of the discontinuous warp and weft technique in the Museum’s collection. With this technique, the warps and wefts on the textile change with every color and weaving session, rather than being continuous along the length and width of the fabric.

The bold designs on the red background include three large, colorful supernatural beings connected to several smaller figures. The largest figure wears a green and yellow feline pelt and is associated with two mythological animals devouring humans: an anthropomorphic bird and a shark depicted with a human arm. These composite beings combine animals of the natural world with Nasca supernatural deities who keep the world in order.

The panel was converted into a poncho in antiquity, when a head opening was made at the center and long tassels were added at the shoulders.

Here are some questions visitors asked us during their visit to this exhibition.

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Does the quipu convey principally numbers (dates, ages, distances, quantities, etc.) or also narrative information regarding history within the Andean corpus of knowledge?

Both, actually. Early scholars thought that the knots could only record numbers, but further analysis makes it very clear that some quipu include much more information including stories, genealogies, and even poetry.

I was wondering, who owns a quipu? An individual or government?

The quipu could be considered the property of the government in some cases, especially the administrative ones. Specially trained record-keepers called khipukamayuq (“knot-makers” or “knot-keepers”), constructed, maintained, and read that data. It was the khipukamayuq who likely held the quipu in their possession. But they were employees of the state. Does that make sense?

Yes, thank you.

What is a "quipu?"

A quipu is a method of recording information used in the Andes since ancient times. The object itself is made from a series of strings of different colors and materials that have been knotted in specific ways to encode information.

The exhibition of Vicuña's work alongside some historical quipu from our collection uses the form of the quipu to address the history of the Andean region.

Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu

May 18–November 25, 2018

For millennia, ancient peoples of the Andes created quipus—complex record-keeping devices, made of knotted cords, that served as an essential medium for reading and writing, registering and remembering. New York–based Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña has devoted a significant part of her artistic practice to studying, interpreting, and reactivating the quipus, which were banned by the Spanish during their colonization of South America. Drawing on her indigenous heritage, Vicuña channels this ancient, sensorial mode of communication into immersive installations and participatory performances.

Disappeared Quipu pairs ancient quipus from our collection with a newly commissioned installation by Vicuña that combines monumental strands of knotted wool with a four-channel video projection. Together, these quipus of the past and present explore the nature of language and memory, the resilience of native people in the face of colonial repression, and Vicuña’s own experiences living in exile from her native Chile. Each knot of Vicuña’s modern-day quipus gives radical possibility to the connective and expressive capacities of a language nearly lost to history.

On view in the adjacent gallery are thirteen ancient Andean textiles selected by Vicuña from our collection. Featured in the artist’s video projection, these textiles span a period of fourteen hundred years and complement Vicuña’s installation by honoring an important indigenous artistic tradition.

Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Brooklyn presentation is initiated by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and is organized by Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and Nancy Rosoff, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, Arts of the Americas, with Serda Yalkin, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of the Americas and Europe. The MFA presentation is organized by Liz Munsell, Lorraine and Alan Bressler Curator of Contemporary Art, and Dennis Carr, Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture. Gary Urton, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre‐Columbian Studies at Harvard University, is a collaborative consultant to the project. Robert Kolodny and Ricardo Gallo respectively, created the video projection and sound design of the work.