La innovación en la creación y comercialización de animales fantásticos en Arrazola, Oaxaca

Abstract

It was economic necessity and the proximity with one of the state of Oaxaca’s most important archaeological sites that sparked awareness for the demand for innovative products amongst the men of the town of Arrazola, who were originally farmers. That spark led them to develop a handicraft tradition that has thrived for the past 80 years. The creation and sale of the carved copal-wood pieces made in Arrazola has led the artisans to develop innovative processes that have undergone transformations over time as needs changed. They taught themselves how to carve, and developed certain shapes over years of isolation, in complete secret, in family workshops in the creators’ houses. Ultimately, that led to clear, distinct styles that have been preserved up to this day. However, political and economic crises have recently forced them out of isolation, and they have instead formed organizations aimed at promoting their members’ pieces. The peculiarity of the Arrazola creations is that they nominally correspond to animals in nature but in actual fact, in terms of shape, colour, and composition, they represent a new reality that exists only in the fantasies of their creators’ minds. Through the power of their imagination, the creators visualize the animal’s form before carving it with a machete and regular kitchen knives and finally decorate it with acrylic paints. The carvers call themselves artisans, and although some of them feel they are the possessors of an art that is a natural gift that comes from divine inspiration, most of them describe the creative process as a complex combination of mental planning enriched by observation, experimentation, and constant effort aimed at coming up with innovation.