Craft / Five Dresses For A Wari Goddess by Ximena Briceño. At Craft + Design Canberra, until August 24. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE. 

Ximena Briceño is from Peru and frequently returns to visit family and old friends.

In this exhibition, Briceño is introducing us to several female artists who worked in the decorative arts in the middle of the 20^th century.

On a recent visit, she met up with a family of fourth generation metalworkers and found a trove of dies, used to stamp shapes into different materials. At the same time, she explored the lives of women artists who had explored their cultural heritage.

Elena Izcue developed both fine art and luxury design objects based around pre-Columbian heritage, making an important contribution to Peruvian national identity. Graziella Laffi, 20 years younger than Izcue, designed and made jewellery and hollowware that drew on pre-Columbian imagery and techniques for her modern designs.

Meanwhile, Silvia Lawson established Silvania Prints with several stores in Lima and Cusco, Peru, selling fabric, clothing and home goods. She also drew on Columbian imagery.

Two dresses from Silvania Prints from the late 1960s show motifs from the history of Peru.

Briceño was intrigued by the simplicity of the silhouette of the camelids (alpacas, llamas and vicuñas) on the dies and, while she was in Peru, struck them in anodised aluminium and titanium, cardboard, and upcycled aluminium from coffee pods. The small squares are joined by anodised jump rings, so they move with the wearer.

Briceño has chosen simple garments – the Colombian poncho has definitely been a starting point – to work with the small squares. The colours: yellow/gold and deep red add grandeur to the simple shapes and methods of making.

The Wari Empire was a civilisation that flourished in the south-central Andes and coastal area of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1000 AD. They produced very sophisticated metalwork and ceramics, with similar designs to textiles, all found in desert burial tombs.

Briceño is interested in the cultures of her birth country, while living and working in Australia. She brings us a new way of looking at and making clothing.

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