Cecilia Vicuña: Living Threads

This exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery marks the first major UK presentation of Cecilia Vicuña, the Chilean artist, poet and feminist activist. Spanning six decades, it explores her interdisciplinary practice across painting, textiles, photography, installation, film, poetry and performance, examining the connections between art, political resistance and Indigenous knowledge. The exhibition traces Vicuña’s time in London in the 1970s, where she arrived to study at the Slade School of Art and co-founded Artists for Democracy in 1974, responding to the military coup in Chile and international liberation struggles. It also highlights her longstanding engagement with ecological preservation and the cultural traditions threatened by colonialism. Key works include Quipu Menstrual (2006–2024), an installation of suspended unspun wool inspired by ancient Andean systems of communication, alongside her ephemeral precarios sculptures and works from the Palabrarmas series.