00Peru and Ecuador · 2007–2018

Before the studio: reed, paper and straw.

The exploration began in Peru in 2007, among the reed boats of the coast — caballitos de totora, built by hand the same way for centuries.

In 2018, in Ecuador, Vargas-Suárez Universal spent days drawing on paper by the sea at Punta Barandúa, and in Manabí we went to the weavers of paja toquilla, the fine straw of the Panama hat. Each trip asked the same question: what can an artist make here, by hand, that could not be made anywhere else?

Reed boats made of bundled totora standing upright against a sea wall — Totora reed boats, Peru, 2007.

Blue watercolour drawings spread on a table by a window over the sea — Vargas-Suárez Universal’s drawings, Punta Barandúa, Ecuador, 2018.

A weaver seated among loose straw, weaving a basket by hand — A weaver at work, Ecuador.

Toquilla straw hats with long loose fibres springing from them — Paja toquilla, Manabí, 2018.

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