Fuerte Quebracho
Fuerte Quebracho is a site-specific installation at an abandoned structure at Fort Tilden, a former U.S. military site on the Atlantic coast. It uses deadstock silk dyed with quebracho fuerte, a tree native to the Gran Chaco region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
Like the ocean at Fort Tilden, the tree’s history is entangled with histories of war. Once employed in leather tanning for military gear, its production was dominated by the Argentina-based British company La Forestal. During the Cold War, competing powers raced to secure it as part of the global contest for strategic raw materials.
The work plays on fuerte’s double meaning, fort and strength, asking which forms of strength endure and which histories remain.
Fuerte Quebracho is made possible with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts and is part of New York Textile Month.
All photos by Andrés Altamirano unless otherwise noted.
Video by Maco Díaz.
Posters by María Elena Pombo.
Fuerte Quebracho
Fuerte Quebracho is a site-specific installation at an abandoned structure at Fort Tilden, a former U.S. military site on the Atlantic coast. It uses deadstock silk dyed with quebracho fuerte, a tree native to the Gran Chaco region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
Like the ocean at Fort Tilden, the tree’s history is entangled with histories of war. Once employed in leather tanning for military gear, its production was dominated by the Argentina-based British company La Forestal. During the Cold War, competing powers raced to secure it as part of the global contest for strategic raw materials.
The work plays on fuerte’s double meaning, fort and strength, asking which forms of strength endure and which histories remain.
Fuerte Quebracho is made possible with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts and is part of New York Textile Month.
Fuerte Quebracho Activation In collaboration with gmtc
Fuerte Quebracho was inaugurated with a an activation as part of New York Textile Month that included:
Sound Performance by Isaac Silber
Fuerte Quebracho Water Distribution by Fragmentario
Indigo Workshop with Fragmentario (María Elena Pombo)
Before the accidental invention of synthetic dyes in 1856, all cultures across the world used plants to dye their textiles. Among these plants, the Indigofera genus stands out for the complex technology necessary to extract color from it, and the diverse strategies developed by different societies worldwide.
In this workshop, each participant received a zine, silk organza, and a glass jar to create their own vat from scratch using fructose and calcium hydroxide.
They were able to choose between Indigofera Suffruticosa grown in Puerto Rico by Trama Antillana and Indigofera Guatemalensis grown in El Salvador by Hacienda Los Nacimientos. Two of few projects growing native American indigo in present times.
Workshop was free for the first 100 participants to arrive. There was not enough materials so some participants shared.
María Elena Pombo is a Venezuelan artist based in NYC. Since 2016 she has designed and taught classes on natural dyes through a decolonial and non-extractivist lens in cultural centers, botanical gardens, film festivals, nightclubs, and more, across the USA, Europe and Japan.
Andean Sounds by Mundo Extraño (Andrés Altamirano)
Mundo Extraño: Cultural refuge, where the decadence seen in the outside world has no place. The music of the sun, with its reference to the Andes and nature, symbolizes a source of vitality and renewal in the midst of a changing environment.
Andrés Altamirano is an Ecuadorian-born visual artist and photographer working primarily between New York City and Latin America.
Music Performance by Peruvian Flutist Camilo Ángeles, New York Bassist Henry Fraser, and New York Drummer Jason Nazary
With a proximity to the raw energy of hardcore punk, contemporary music, experimental jazz, spectralism, and the defiant beauty intrinsic to noise music, the musical statement of this project incorporates a constant expansion of sound possibilities and a telepathic interplay. With fast and angular melodic discourses in dialogue with harmonic complexity and polyrhythmic explorations, the music of this project resists confinement within established musical genres.
The trio operates as an electroacoustic organism orchestrating different narratives: from static and obscure, song-like low-frequency multi-layered textural complexity, to rapid virtuosic gestures that change in microseconds and merge with different electronic processings, to extreme-volume punk grooves with rhythmic structures that are constantly shifting.
Their first album Aqrabuamelu, was released in November of 2022 in a limited CD edition by the Massachusetts record label Tripticks Tapes.
During K´itha Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop the trio played music from their second album, recorded in May of 2023, to be released in a special Vinyl and Cassette editions by the Mexican record label Aurora Central Records in 2025.
Sweet Potato Snacks
Sweet potato snacks inspired by Huaca Prieta, where the oldest remains of sweet potatoes where also found <3 (*)
Boiled sweet potatoes and picarones made by Pombo’s parents.
Process
Process photos of a day of work.
Many hands helped made this huge piece by twisting, ironing, and dyeing almost 500m of fabric:
Jasmin Risk, Camilo Angeles, Henry Fraser, Tomas Orrego, Dijana Ilic, Dario Far, Alya Yersu, Layne Blake, Maria Daniela Huiza, Ben Brill, Trishia Rinaldo, Nicolas Alvarado Cariat, Alasia Reyes, Carlos Pombo.
