LOLA ANKARAPI
Lola Ankarapi( b. 1967, Tepu, Suriname) is an artist working in dialogue with her Indigenous roots in the Wayana and Trio cultures. Since the age of eleven, she has created artworks that are significant within the traditions of her communities. This artistic labor includes body painting for ceremonial celebrations and mourning events— using pigments derived from a fruit called menoe— and decorating objects that have spiritual meaning. An important part of Ankarapi’ s practice is supporting and training community members, a task that includes her children, creating space to share Wayana culture with the world.
Ankarapi is well known for making the decorated wooden disks called maluanas. She has created one that measures one meter in diameter for the Amazonia Açu exhibition. While they include many colorful geometric patterns and animal depictions, maluanas also narrate the history of Wayana people throughout the Amazon. Used to decorate communal spaces, they are placed in the peak of roofs in circular village huts. These hand-painted discs engage in dialogues with the imaginaries of Wayana culture, including beings such as water spirits( mulokot) and double-headed caterpillars( kuluwayak and totokosi). Her labor speaks to and includes these other-than-human entities, giving them life by acknowledging their value to the collective.
( MIGUEL KEERVELD)
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