Hidalgo enters into dialogue with, observes, and listens to the materials with which she works, out of which emerged this living artwork. Hidalgo’s installation art has developed through the materials she uses; by working with organic materials that naturally decompose, her pieces are in themselves ephemeral. 

Each element and symbol has a visual and energetic intention, aiming to evoke one’s sensory memory. Even the process of weaving calls to memory ancestral villages; the patrimonial generation of weavers; and the grandfather Kan, the serpent, who coils and uncoils in his own physical transformation, both energetic and spiritual. 

The language of symbols is also the language of nature, thus the primeval language of humanity, which survives in our blood and in our genes. The serpent is a timeless symbol found in art and in ancient rituals, symbolizing wisdom, eternity, transformation and healing. The colors red and black within the weaving symbolize dawn and dusk, duality and change in all its natural forms. The double spiral structure represents a continuous movement wherein transformation is cyclical and everything is temporal; the skin of the serpent morphs just as the orange peel decomposes.

Mutation is a weaving that invokes the collective weaving of diverse communities. Beyond the artistic and aesthetic work, the process behind this piece is tied to the artist’s energetic beliefs and quests, both spiritual and personal.

Alejandra Hidalgo Bran

1981, Guatemala