Threads of Hope: The Chilean Arpillera Movement
Thanks to the generosity of Marjorie Agosín, the Handwerker Gallery at Ithaca College hosted her incredible collection of Chilean arpilleras from October 22-December 11, 2009. Threads of Hope: The Chilean Arpillera Movement introduced a comprehensive collection of arpilleras, three-dimensional appliqué textiles, that have become the voices of loss and resistance, the keepers of stories and realities that were otherwise censored in Chile during the Pinochet era (1973-90). In response to the arrest and "disappearance" of loved ones--approximately two thousand were killed or disappeared--women formed a movement to challenge the silence and terror while denouncing the atrocities taking place in Chile. The women arpilleristas who have made these emotionally and politically charged quilts have lost loved ones to political oppression and live with an open wound. This exhibit and Marjorie Agosín's visit in 2009 fostered deep and illuminating conversations about Human Rights and the power of human resistance.
"The Arpillerista"
artisan of remains
burns with rage and cold
as she tenderly
picks through the remnants of her dead,
salvages the shroud of her husband
the trousers left after the absences
submerges herself in cloth of foaming, silent blood
and though she is fragile she grows large,
sovereign over her adobe hut,
her ragged scraps
and determined to tell her story
truer than the tale woven by her
sister Philomena
Disruptive and beautiful she
puts together her flayed remnants
like a greenish and forgotten skin
and with her disguised thimble
hidden in the pocket of her modest apron
and her harmless needle
she conjures up victorious armies
embroiders humble people smiling, becoming triumphant
brings the dead back to life
fabricates water, bell towers, schools, dining rooms
giant suns
and the Cordillera of the Andes
peaks opening like portals
of this splendid city.
-Marjorie Agosín