Tequendama Painting

Acrylic, collage and lithography on fabric. 2023. On this acrylic painting I engraved images that replicate two pre-Hispanic goldsmith pieces that were found in what is now Colombia. In the upper left part I represent a flower-shaped piece hammered in tumbaga (gold and copper alloy). In the lower right part I include the image of a piece in gold in convex form with a convex convex shape with the embossed face of a shaman. In Muysccubun, the language of the indigenous Muisca people, Tequendama means "the one who rushes down". On the outskirts of Colombia's capital, the Bogotá River drops 132 meters into the Tequendama waterfall. Their story tells that Bochica was the man who taught them metalworking and agriculture as well as solidarity and generosity and then retired to a cave. A woman named Huitaca opposed these teachings and made the people selfish. The gods were enraged and flooded the region. Bochica appeared and struck the earth with his golden staff and cracked the mountain range so that the water fled down the waterfall, saving the people. The Tequendama area is one of the two oldest human settlements in what is now Colombia.