Artist's Statement:

The main source of the images of these paintings are the special dreams narrated by the Mapuche people when they visit the wenu mapu, the place of extraordinary beauty where their ancestors and gods reside.

I recorded these dreams during ethnographic research in 1985-1987, and 1990-91. The Mapuche, a South American indigenous group with an estimated population of one million, live primarily on reservations in southern Chile practicing small scale farming. In spite of the many cultural changes that the Mapuche have experienced since their relocation to reservations at end of the 19th century, the Mapuche maintain a strong belief in dreams, as I had found in my studies. Dreams are viewed by most Mapuche as being journeys taken by the soul while the person is asleep. Dreams in which the soul visits the wenu mapu are considered to be important to the dreamers because of the contact with the sacred. Shamans and ordinary people benefit from contact with the sacred in that they can obtain power and advice on all kinds of matters. These dreams are proudly narrated in rituals and social gatherings.

The exhibit shows my depictions of heaven by several narrators. Following the Mapuche tradition of physically locating heaven in different places, the narrators represent heaven as located at the bottom of the ocean, up in the sky, and in the crater of volcanoes. Through the narration of these types of dreams, the narrators not only share their sense of the beautiful, but also they express a social commentary of their reality. Although heavens are not perfect places, they provide solace from the harsh realities of the everyday life, a place to correct everyday injustices, and to alter the order of everyday forms of perceived power.

--Lydia Nakashima Degarrod