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Plaza SUNAT (Superintendencia Nacional de Administración Tributaria), Day/Night, 2013.
Left, a marching band in military uniform, practicing typical marching band instrumentation.
Right, a Peruvian/Andean, dance troupe practicing the Kashua, a traditional Andean dance performed in groups and outdoors. |
Arriving in a new place, I become more autistic than usual. Language is more difficult to form with both English and Spanish speakers because my perception is heightened. I generally have no interest in purchasing group adventure tours, massages, conventional Andean tchotchkes, or geometric-patterned Alpaca sweaters made in sweatshops, so I'm easily agitated with all of the sales pitches experienced on the street. I become a watcher in every sense and try to figure out the best way to get to my targets without having to dodge vendors. Maybe I'm just getting old. Good thing I'm traveling alone. My targets tend to involve architecture, fabric and costume stores, hardware stores, good stargazing spots, quiet plazas, and good food. I like to take a few days to walk the city in order to identify my targets but also to think about why the streets are laid out the way they are, or why the young-people-make-out spot is where it is. In a sense, I'm attempting to construct a whole picture of a place understanding that, as an outsider, I will never get to experience it any differently.
The plaza pictured above was near my hotel in Cuzco. By day, the loud sounds of a practicing marching band can be heard for blocks. Standard militant patriotism reminiscent of the Spanish conquistadors that toppled this great city, the former capital of the Inca empire. By night, the plaza is overtaken by a young Peruvian dance troupe practicing their Kashua, a traditional Andean dance performed outdoors. This felt significant and illustrative of contemporary Andean/Peruvian culture as I've experienced it.
One of the first questions I am asked after I explain how I got here, is about the specifics of my project. I don't think the specifics matter so much and I don't like talking about details because I think there is more substance in the spectrum of information I can't plan on discovering. Whatever the specifics of my project are, my interest is in giving a visual form to the substitute culture that arises from communities that depend on tourism for their survival, focusing on the inauthentic commodities that are fabricated and sold as evidence. I will focus my research in Andean weaving communities, learning the processes by which their textiles are fabricated both for export and personal use. I will look for inspiration in every stage of a product's life cycle, from maintaining a herd of Alpacas to setting up a marketplace in a town center. There is much more I hope to explore but here is my starting point.
I hope to use this site to both publish my thoughts as an observer of a foreign place, and also to help track and develop this project that feels impossible to describe succinctly with language.
More soon.
