WHERE ART AND MEDICINE MERGE
Shipibo art is inseparable from Shipibo medicine. The intricate geometric designs that cover textiles, ceramics and even the human body — known as kené in the Shipibo language — are far more than decoration. They are a visual language that condenses the cosmovision, the knowledge and the aesthetics of the people of the Ucayali River basin, and one of the elements that most clearly distinguishes them from other pre-Columbian cultures.
What sets kené apart is its source of inspiration: the visions received during Ayahuasca ceremonies and through the medicinal plants known as rao.
THE ART OF KENÉ
According to Shipibo thinking, these visions are a materialisation of positive energy — called koshi — which is not visible to the human eye, yet can manifest in vivid, colourful patterns through the intake of medicinal plants. These visions are also an essential element in traditional shamanic healing.
When these designs are applied to different objects, they are endowed with great healing power. The kené not only embellishes — it also heals people and things with the light and energy of the plants. In the material and the immaterial, aesthetics and medicine become one.
The complexity of these designs is not merely artistic: it condenses the entire Shipibo cosmovision. Such is the importance of kené that it was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation by the Peruvian National Institute of Culture in April 2008.
Kené designs, primarily made by women, adorn a wide range of objects — ceramics, textiles, ornaments, weapons and even the human body. Unlike other cultures where shamanism is reserved for men, Shipibo women not only participate in Ayahuasca ceremonies but can also excel in the art of healing, ultimately attaining the highest level of shamanic mastery — Meraya.
Different methods are used to trace the kené, one of which involves natural dyes applied with wooden sticks or brushes. This technique is commonly used to decorate fabrics, ceramics, wood and leather. Kené is also expressed in embroidery and large loom weaving, wood carvings and handmade ceramics, as well as in crowns, necklaces and bracelets made of multicoloured beads.
Women begin to prepare in the art of kené as young girls, spending many hours alongside their female relatives, observing the work they perform. They are also ritually prepared to acquire the gift of visualisation: drops of piri piri — a tropical sedge that grows along the Amazon River — are applied to the eyes and the navel. The ritual is believed not only to enhance the capacity for inner vision but also to improve dexterity in the layout of the designs. Remarkably, women use no tools to trace or measure the designs they make, nor any kind of sketch or draft. They simply place themselves before the object and begin to create the kené — painting, embroidering or sculpting — exactly as they envision it in the moment. In recent times, more and more men have also begun to specialise in the art of kené.
KENÉ AND SHAMANIC PRACTICE
The kené can also be sung — and in this way an even deeper connection opens between this art and shamanic practice. During an Ayahuasca ceremony, the designs can be seen, touched, heard and sung by the healer and by the participants alike, further strengthening the link between beauty and health.
In the healing process, the curandero can see, hear and even smell the designs of each participant — their light and their energy. A person in good physical, mental and emotional health carries perfumed airs and luminous, colourful designs, while someone whose health has faltered has lost their designs and is surrounded by “dark bad airs” (jakónma wíso níwebo). The curandero cleanses these energies so that the person can receive their designs and fresh airs once again.
In this sense, shamanic healing is like the art of painting the energetic body of the person — and this act of restorative painting is performed through the chant of the healer. The design guides the voice, and the voice paints the design. Some call the ícaros “painted songs”.
Healers do not create their own designs. Having followed the dieta with several teacher plants, they have had the plants’ codes revealed to them — codes considered far more beautiful than any painted design. During the Ayahuasca ceremony, they can recover those codes, see their designs and sing their songs.
It is said that all the designs of the plants’ energy originate in the mother of the Ayahuasca and of the waters — the primordial anaconda, Ronin.
Many guests recognise these very patterns in their own visions during ceremony — an experience that makes the connection between art and medicine suddenly, unmistakably real.
At Onikano, a collection of Shipibo art objects inherited from the Meraya ancestors is carefully preserved. These are pieces of great cultural value and energetic power, used in the rituals held at the centre.
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