Despacho Papers

The Despacho Series is a set of collages that serve as documents of a realm between ancient tradition and modern life, a space where cultures meet and embrace, where dialog between the tangible world and an unseen one is ever-present.

For the past 25 years I have spent extended periods living and working in the Peruvian highlands with Q’ero artisans and healers. This series of pieces is made from paper wrappers that remain after a despacho ceremony, an elegant form of Andean offering. A collection of small, folded packets containing seeds, grains, candies, shells, and assorted other materials are emptied and ritually assembled into a mandala-like pattern, which is then bundled and burned or buried. For me, the set-aside bits of paper used to wrap the materials to be offered are precious in and of themselves: old newspapers, medical records, children’s homework, receipts, government documents, and other discarded scraps carry memory and meaning. I have been collecting these cast-off traces of bureaucratic systems, neglected fragments, and histories of everyday life, and transforming them into collages. Made with reverence at an edge between cultures and creative traditions, these small works are their own form of offering.