Kaupüna Swing in Buriti Straw and Solid Wood

Dimensions LxWxH (cm)

30x60x200 Weight (kg) 7

Production Year 2020

Material Buriti Straw, Solid Wood Color Natural Design Class

Limited Editions Number of Editions 20

Number Of Pieces Created 20

Description

A “new indigenous product”, it was with these words that Kulikyrda Mehinako described the “Kaupüna” Swing. Its design rises from the desire to enhance the buriti yarn, made by women who wrap very thin strips of straw around their thighs with quick movements, which they manage to gather after taking a boat down the river to collect material and then put it to dry. Completely executed in the Kaupüna Village of the Mehinako ethnicity, located in the Xingu Indigenous Reserve, a piece was born that unites the design of a designer from São Paulo, who is passionate about Brazilian handicrafts, and the indigenous handicraft tradition. Representing the artisanal work of women who harvest, clean, and prepare the buriti straw to make the thread with which they weave their traditional nets, and of men who enter the forest to find trees from which to take the wood to create zoomorphic benches adorned with charcoal and annatto-based graphics. It was the first time in Kaupüna village that men and women worked together to create a single piece. Infinite emotion, immeasurable value! The images in the photos are illustrative, as the creation in the village is free and the designs and color combinations can vary, which makes each swing always unique.

About the maker

Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros is a designer, visual artist and researcher, founder of Yankatu - Design with Soul. With a degree in business administration and interior design, Maria Fernanda has worked in the field for over 20 years. She migrated to furniture design in 2014, creating Yankatu, a design studio through which she carries out projects with social impact alongside Brazilian artisans. The encounter with the art world happened naturally in 2020 when the search for the appreciation of Brazilian artisans and their knowledge generates a growing discomfort regarding invisibility and lack of knowledge about the reality of Brazilian cultural traditions. Her work is based on relationships that go beyond the gaze and are established on mutual trust and admiration. His production spans a long timelessness and also a continuity, resulting from the privilege and fluidity of the otherness of established relationships. It is in the power of art that she finds the way to share her learning, activate the gaze and listening of others, seeking to generate in them the same discomfort she feels and, in this way, encourage them to act. It is through a relational aesthetic that she aims to join forces because the reaction of the other, the spectator, is essential for the realization of her art, which does not end with the created object but rather expands into the immaterial and impalpable field. Her production involves various materials without settling on anyone, despite her familiarity with solid wood. It goes from clay to feathers with the same lightness that conveys strong messages in a poetic way.