Cecilia Vicuña’s painting 1972 “Amaranta” was “lost and reborn” when found in 2021.
The Chilean artist-poet-activist writes simply as an introduction to her work, “My work dwells in the not yet, the future potential of the unformed, where sound, weaving, and language interact to create new meanings.”
We asked writers to create flash responses the “lost and reborn” painting, generating six micro-fictions (all translated into Spanish, with our gratitude, by Kianny N. Antigua), four poems, and one nonfiction. Please enjoy these beautiful, vivid works for our Winter 2021-2022 In-Residence Feature.
– Aster(ix) Editors
Cecilia Vicuña Explicación: Amaranta
Oil on canvas, 1972-2021
As written in Catalogue for Shanghai Biennale, 2021
A girl is wrapped in her menstruation as if it were a gown of blood.
Because her menstruation is perceived as a disgusting threat, a
man knifes her laughing gaudily as he murders her, while another
man laughs even harder, holding her wrap of blood that now is a
prison tethering her to bone poles. A telephone line controls her
and two hands, male and female push her in place, to facilitate
the murder.
The Amaranta Project
Micro-Fictions
In English and Spanish (all translations by Kianny N. Antigua)
- “Awake” by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
- “Germinates” by Kianny N. Antigua
- “Answer” by Jennifer Croft
- “Your Daughter Refashions the Flag into a Crop Top” by Rosa Alcalá
- “Unfading” by Nathalie Handal
- “Feedback Loop” by Nelly Rosario
Poetry
- “Time Travel” by Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene
- “a guitar made of telephone wire” by Alicia Bauman Morales
- “Unfading” by Thea Matthews
- “Don’t Spread Mustard Seeds On My Grave” by Bushra Rehman
Micro Nonfiction
- “brunch with ama, the teacher & the imp” by Radhiyah Ayobami
