AK MAGMA DESIGN: Argentina

Showing posts with label Argentina. Show all posts

Argentina on Horseback

With our entourage of herding dogs, we rode the pampas and appreciated the beauty all around us.

Gaucho Crafts- Silver and Leather: There's a strong tradition of working precious metals, such as silver, into fine belts and buckles, historically the gaucho's way of carrying his wealth with him was originally in the ornate silver rastras and buckles which are still used today over leather belts or to tie fajas (woven cloth belts). Silver spurs, stirrups and the fine silver decoration on saddles are all extraordinary examples of traditions dating from the early 18th century. The gaucho facón (an all purpose knife used especially for cutting his asado) is made with an elaborately wrought silver handle. Another example is the traditional mate vessel, often just a hollowed out gourd, can be made by Gauchos with an exquisitely worked piece of silver. Leather was always important for making all the items associated with horses, and obviously widely available, the complexity of the traditional bridles, belts and straps is impressive. Long thin strips of leather are woven into wide plaits, or trensas and used still for all parts of horse bridlery, as well as more decorative pieces.

The Gauchos are Argentina's cowboys, who for centuries roamed the country’s vast plains, the pampas, herding cattle and working the ranches since as early as the 1600's. I was pleased to get a sneak peak into the living traditions of gaucho life.

Patagonia

just a few last snap shots of the phenomenal landscapes of Patagonia

Patagonia Glacier

just a note on scale: a large housing project could fit in this fissure. After a long meditation on that, I actually saw huge internal walls collapse inside this fissure. Perspective....

how does this Texan say glacier... "WOW"

Buenos Aires, fileteado painting

I literally had 12 hours in BA before my flight to Chile so I took a 4 hour Fileteado painting workshop. Super fun!

In his book, Filete porteño, Alfredo Genovese describes what anthropologist Norberto Cirio gave as the main formal features of fileteado:

A high degree of stylization
The preponderance of lively colors
The use of shading and highlighting to create the illusion of depth
The preferred use of a Gothic font style or highly detailed letters
The recurrence of symmetry
The framing of each composition when it is finished
The efficient use of available space
The symbolic conceptualization of many of the images representedFileteado originated in cart factories at the beginning of the 20th century. The source of this style is credited to some of the many Italian immigrants working in these factories.
They decorated carts according to the owner's economic situation, preferences, and schedule. As time went on, trucks replaced carts and were still painted with the fileteado style. Privately owned buses also sported the bright colors and designs. Imagery of the day began to appear in compositions and included Carlos Gardel, Our lady of Lujan, horses, sports figures, pretty ladies, and more.
The art form was in danger of dying out in the 1970's when fileteado was prohibited by law. Not only was it banned to decorate buses with fileteado, but they were even painted over. Some argue, however, that this may have been what kept the style alive. Fileteadores sought out other spaces to show their work including newsstands, buildings, store entrances, bars, posters, tins, plates, and more.

sheep shearing- Patagonia Argentina

The Gaucho.

The Estancia.

The herding of the flock.

During the XIXth century, a social and economic phenomenon shook the World: the Industrial Revolution. Many machines were invented and raw material had to be provided. The textile mills needed large volumes of wool, but Europe on its own could not produce the needed quantity. In 1833, the English took over the Malvinas Islands with the purpose of having a strategic port for the empire, they also discovered that the Islands had perfect conditions for breeding ovine cattle and sheep. On the banks of the few rivers existing in the area and near some springs, all the necessary infrastructure for the wool business was built. Wire fences, sheds and houses appeared in the deserts of Patagonia. During the First World War wool prices were at their peak – the “white gold” as it was called, which together with cotton and linen were the only textile fibers. By 1920, all the farms within the area were well-settled and the production techniques for shearing sheep have not changed much. Sheep are still being bred, the same machinery is still being used for shearing purposes and the raw wool is still being exported abroad.

In the barn, the sheep are evaluated by eye to determine if they are to be sheared or slaughtered for meat. Those marked by chalk for shearing are first bathed in a solution to remove bugs, then placed between the gauchos legs in a kind of sleep hold. The sheep is then shaved with clippers; the good shearers can take care of business in less than 3 minutes. The wool is then compressed in this outside press in cubes that meet the weight requirements. The wool business is huge, the sheep are sheared twice a year for up to 7 years before becoming dinner.