Many years ago at a Slow Food event in Italy, before I got into basketry, I bought a bag made in Argentina. What appealed to me was the cleverness of the open-weave structure, the colours (I took it for granted they were natural dyes), and the strong smell of woodsmoke, which persisted for quite a while!
I saw a similar bag in 2018 in the Anni Albers exhibition at Tate Modern, and Peter Collingwood includes an example in Textile and Weaving Structures. So I now know that the technique is a form of looping (double looping, also known as figure of eight or hourglass looping). It is also used in Papua New Guinea to make string bags, or bilum.
In Argentina the technique is known as yica, and the exhibition Tayhin at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill showcases it beautifully. Claudia Alarcón learnt the stitch from her mother and grandmother when she was 12. In the community of Wichí people of northern Salta, Argentina, where she is from, the technique is traditionally used to make clothes and bags. Tayhin is the Wichí term for weaving.
The Silät collective formed in 2023, co-ordinated by Claudia Alarcón and Buenos Aires-based curator Andrei Fernández and now has around 100 members, all women from across several generations. The pieces in the exhibition are large scale and are often made by several weavers at the same time, as the video below shows.
According to the Wichí, a group of stars transformed into women and came down to earth on chaguar fibre. When they landed, they started to weave using the chaguar. The exhibition includes a video showing the whole labour-intensive process of harvesting, processing, making cordage, and dyeing fibres from the chaguar plant (Bromelia hieronymi). Now I understand why my bag smelled so strongly of woodsmoke. 🙂
One of the pieces in the exhibition is called Star Women (Mujeres Estrellas), presumably in reference to the Wichí legend.
Most pieces are more abstract, based on remixing traditional patterns.
Although natural dyes are mostly used, sometimes aniline dyes add a pop of colour.
Some of the weavings are hung from sturdy wooden frameworks in the centre of the space, as they might appear in the forests of the Salta. This makes them tricky to photograph well!
Although most of the weavings are made with the double looping (yica) technique, there are a couple made with simple looping (referred to as antique stitch on the labels). It’s fairly easy to distinguish this from their denser appearance. One of these has the wonderful title of Fragments of Armadillo Ears.
Claudia Alarcón & Silät: Tayhin runs at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill until 14 September 2025.
