Origin of Huichol Art

Origin of Huichol art

The origin of Huichol art lies in an ancestral tradition, the physical transcription of the images visualized by the Huichol shamans; induced by the ingestion of Peyote (hikuri), their sacred cactus, allowing them to cross the threshold of the unknown and thus relate to the divine. These Huichol works of art are made with beads or thread (yarn), each one carries symbolic motifs, stories of the Huichol culture and Huichol legends of their cosmogony that offer us a glimpse of Huichol society.

Ritual art initiation: Because it belongs to the specific religious practice of an indigenous group, Huichol art has different dimensions from the contemporary art that we usually find in museums and galleries. The Huichol world is divided into three universes: the world of the mythologythe Huichol holds that life began in the ocean; the Huichol refers to the corn, where daily life and Huichol traditions are developed and the one that has to do with the mysticism, which reveals the Huichol world and the Huichol art of their rituals that distinguish them and give them identity as a Huichol community.

Although the origin of this fascinating Huichol ethnic group is uncertain, what is indisputable is that during the period of the Conquest, many survivors of various indigenous peoples, mainly the Huichol, fled into the interior of the Sierra Madre Occidental to escape the trail of destruction left by the Spanish troops.

Huichol Art is a form of writing, since through their creations, the Huichol tell us their stories and myths. In each Huichol craft they leave a piece of their life. Currently, it can be said that there is no other ethnic group in Mexico that preserves their beliefs, cults and traditions as deeply as the Huicholes.

The Huichol world is divided into three universes: the world of the mythologythe Huichol holds that life began in the ocean; the Huichol refers to the corn, where daily life and Huichol traditions are developed and the one that has to do with the mysticism, which reveals the Huichol world and the Huichol art of their rituals that distinguish them and give them identity as a Huichol community.

Ancestors being born: Huichol Art possesses an enigmatic beauty that takes us through mythical paths and brings us closer to the beginning of time in the Huichol Culture, but it is not only about Huichol myths drawn by the Huichol artists who draw them in yarn or thread, in the Huichol religion, the world exists thanks to the visionary experience of the Huichol initiate and his effort to obtain the "nierika" or "gift of seeing". Thus, for the Huichol, Huichol artistic creation has a cosmogonic dimension.

For the Huichol, the world has a sacred dimension which the mara'akame (shaman) penetrates through dreams, establishing a link between the world of the gods and the profane.