Sandra Vásquez de la Horra draws on popular culture to create hybrid drawings in which figures and allegorical scenes assemble syncretic expressions that amalgamate different traditions from Indigenous mythology to popular political proverbs and the Afro-Caribbean Santería religion, among many others. In a process that transcends the conventional languages of drawing, the artist begins by using graphite pencil on paper, colouring it, and immersing the drawings in beeswax, transfiguring them in the process. As a method similar to engraving, the wax seals the work, lending the white paper a warm tone. Resembling papyrus or skin, the drawings take on the aesthetic qualities of irreverent ancient signs or contemporary tattoos. For Forgive Us Our Trespasses / Vergib uns unsere Schuld, Vásquez de la Horra’s has created El Ojo del Huracán [The eye of the hurricane] (2024), a large drawing that expresses the spiritual significance of water in various beliefs across Abya Yala. While the drawing depicts a female figure emerging from the sea with a child, it also embodies several voices and hopes, such as the Pincoya, a symbol of the fertility of the sea in the Chilote culture of southern Chile, or Yemanjá, the water spirit of the Yoruba. For the artist, the title’s proverb is a metaphoric reference to the many people who have crossed the waterways in hope. In Vásquez de la Horra’s own poetic words, ‘Crossing borders / wetbacks* / Leaving everything behind / In the eye of the hurricane we have always been survivors / I never made it to port / In your empty eyes I read that there would be no tomorrow’.

Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Sandra Vásquez de la Horra and HKW, 2024

* Editorial note: 'Wetbacks' is a derogatory term used to refer to Mexican undocumented workers who migrate to the US from Mexico. It is taken up here by the artist to bring attention to the term; not to discriminate against their legal status, but rather to comment on the harsh environmental conditions they face during their migratory journeys.

Works in the exhibition: El Ojo del Huracán (2024), graphite, pencil, watercolour, gouache on paper, wax, 318.2 × 212 cm. Courtesy of the artist