A River, A Snake, A Map of the Sky

To Chonon Bensho, as to many Indigenous artists, images come in dreams. It is a special capacity of the Indigenous people to open their souls and connect with different spiritual beings through dreaming or visions. Then the spirits come to draw the meandering and fluid patterns of kené on the bodies and clothing of people to protect them and made them look more like spirits, to connect through time and space.  “This ability, this gift, has also come to me because I have been treated with medicinal plants and wisdom since I was a child,”—said Chonon Bensho in a recent interview. “My grandfather was a traditional doctor of great knowledge. Thus, all of my art is created in an oneiric atmosphere. I give testament to my relationship with the spirits of the different plants and entities.” Chonon was born into the Shipibo-Konibo people of Santa Clara in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon to the community of traditional medicinal wisdom keepers. While studying painting at a local fine art school, whose curriculum was based on the Western art canon, she ended up challenging her teachers to accept her study of traditional embroidery as a valid subject for a degree. Kené patterns that embody ancestral knowledge flow through people, snakes, and fish, cover waters and clothing in Chonon Bensho’s paintings, drawings, and delicate tapestry. When embroidered, they are called kewé and often seen as a map of Amazonia where numerous rivers connect different villages and communities, serving as means of communication and a source of food and medicine.  Her works narrate the history of her ancestral land and people. They form a visual memory that holds the stories of the origin of the world and spiritual encounters. Jene Noma reveals the first encounter with kené patterns, which covered the tail of a siren. Rao Noma depicts an image of a kené-bringing Inca woman who came from the Sun, crossing the river and connecting the worlds of spirits and people. In Jene Nete, the snake, who is a spirit that inhabits the depths of the river, weaves fish, turtles, and a human coupe in a circular dance reminiscent of the cyclical chanting of traditional healers traversing time and space.  As Chonon says, “The land is our past, it is our present, and, if we would like to continue to be Shipibo-Konibo, it must also be our future.” Her works map Amazonia, its rivers and forests, its animals and peoples, its ancestral knowledge, and the spiritual universe to help the future coming.