Yax Tun: Jade in Relation     

This installation gathers jade through a vertical composition that recalls both Maya stone monuments and Indigenous market forms of display. Named after yax tun, the classical Maya term for jade, the column brings together carved stone, fibre, beadwork, embroidery, and ceramic elements through collective making rather than isolated objects. Works by K’iche’ Maya artists José Luis Fernando Morales and Silvia Canil Xirúm sit alongside raised embroidery, ceramic flowers by Nahua-Mestize artist ARIA XYX, and fibre-based adornment.

An embroidered textile by Madeja Negra (Michell Manzanares), a Venezuelan artist in living in exile in Colombia, introduces kink and queer sexuality through black thread stitched onto green fabric, depicting erotic collectivity as another form of labour and relation. At the top, Māori artist Israel Randell’s tapa pom-pom earrings crown the column, bringing play, movement, and land-based fibre into dialogue with stone. Set against yellow woven cloth, green jade is held in relation to labour, exchange, and continuity. This is jade understood not as luxury, but as a living material shaped through land, hands, and shared knowledge.