Climate and Materials
Porfirio Gutiérrez
Website: Porfirio Gutierrez
Date: Wednesday April 16
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Location: Digital Arts Research Center 108
Portrait of Porfirio Gutiérrez. Photo by Luis Garvan.
Porfirio Gutiérrez (b. 1978) is a California-based, Zapotec artist and activist whose richly patterned textile works are informed by a marriage of his cultural heritage and an exploration of modernist principles. Embracing the traditions of the Cloud People, or Zapotecs who have lived in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico for over two centuries, the artist works with material sourced directly from the earth, informed both by his childhood as a shepherd and his upbringing learning weaving and dyeing techniques from his parents. Gutiérrez’s palette is determined by the varied flora which populates his homeland, including pericón, or Mexican tarragon, for yellow; marush, a native Oaxacan plant, for green; huizache, a tree whose pods and bark make black; and añil, a local shrub which produces a rich indigo dye. Also central to his practice is the vivid scarlet derived from cochineal insects which are harvested, dried, and ground on a metate. Acutely aware of nature’s constant flux, Gutiérrez makes record of the exact period a plant is harvested for dyes, noting that the color gleaned from a specific plant or insect will vary in vibrancy as the effects of climate change continue to be felt.
Sponsored by: Art Department Environmental Art + Social Practice MFA Program, Norris Center for Natural History, Arts Research Institute