Josh Lilley is pleased to present Here Lives the Origin, the first ever UK solo exhibition by Rember Yahuarcani.
Yahuarcani (b. 1985, Pebas, Peru) is an artist, curator and activist who belongs to the Aimenɨ (White Heron) clan of the Uitoto Nation of northern Amazonia in Peru. His practice considers the interconnectivity between man, beast, landscape and spirit within Uitoto mythology, exploring and preserving Indigenous traditions, knowledge and spirituality. Yahuarcani’s paintings are gestures of resistance, occupying both a ceremonial and political space.In this exhibition, Yahuarcani proposes an intimate encounter with the spiritual force that remains alive within Indigenous cosmogonies. He transforms the exhibition space into a territory inhabited by his origins: a place where gods and ancestors are not distant memories but vibrant presences. The paintings become portals – songs and testaments – affirming that his origins continue to pulsate in the present.
Dreamlike and hallucinatory, Yahuarcani’s paintings of the sacred territory he grew up in are populated with depictions of the myths and stories that were passed down to him by his ancestors. In this new body of work, the artist explores the theme of gods and captures the beating heart of Indigenous nations through a colourful cast of creatures and plants. Yahuarcani’s vast and dynamic scenes immerse the viewer through their powerful and mythological narratives.
Yahuarcani channels and transforms the messages of his grandmother, Martha, through the storytelling in his practice, commenting “My work is the way she saw the aquatic and cosmic worlds of our Clan.” As a child, Martha shared how the people of the Uitoto Nation have faced atrocities and displacement. The rubber boom of the early twentieth century led to the persecution of the Nation, as rubber trees were harvested to feed the automobile industries in the United States and Europe. People who had inhabited the lands for thousands of years were forced to flee the ancestral territory in Colombia. Displaced to Peru, the fight to preserve the Uitoto Nation against the effects of illegal mining, drug trafficking, and new hegemonic powers continues.
Here Lives the Origin reimagines our relationships with territory and time. Yahuarcani calls on us to recognise that contemporary Indigenous art is not merely inspired by traditions, but it is a living act of cultural creation, resistance and transformation.
