Join The Collection to save, track, and explore works like this.

Carolina Caycedo — Sap
Carolina Caycedo

Sap

2018

Sap suspends itself between sculpture and ceremony, its hand-dyed fishing net cascading across a square expanse of 335 by 335 centimeters in a configuration that recalls both aquatic labor and ritual offering. Carolina Caycedo assembled this work from materials drawn directly from the communities and waterways at the center of her sustained research, weaving together fishing net, paracord, plastic rope, metal chain, and carabiner into an object that carries the physical memory of rivers under threat. The dyeing process imparts color that feels earned rather than applied, grounding the work in bodily and ecological time rather than aesthetic decoration. Caycedo is known internationally for her long-term project Be Dammed, an ongoing body of work examining the social and environmental consequences of hydroelectric dam construction across Latin America and beyond. Sap emerges from that larger inquiry, functioning as both artifact and argument. The materials are not metaphorical stand-ins but actual instruments of survival for fishing communities whose livelihoods and cultures are dismantled alongside the rivers they depend upon. The work implicates collection itself in questions of resource, custody, and care. For collectors, Sap offers something rare: a formally commanding object whose scale commands architectural space while remaining deeply tethered to urgent political and environmental questions. Signed by the artist and currently held at Instituto de Visión, the work represents a mature and resonant moment within one of the most consequential practices in contemporary Latin American art. Acquiring it means holding a piece of an ongoing reckoning with land, water, and the communities who inhabit them.

Medium
Hand-dyed fishing net, paracord, plastic rope, metal chain, carabineer
Overall
Signed
Yes

Start the Discussion

Request access to join the discussion

About this work

Carolina Caycedo, Sap, 2018

Sap suspends itself between sculpture and ceremony, its hand-dyed fishing net cascading across a square expanse of 335 by 335 centimeters in a configuration that recalls both aquatic labor and ritual offering. Carolina Caycedo assembled this work from materials drawn directly from the communities and waterways at the center of her sustained research, weaving together fishing net, paracord, plastic rope, metal chain, and carabiner into an object that carries the physical memory of rivers under threat. The dyeing process imparts color that feels earned rather than applied, grounding the work in bodily and ecological time rather than aesthetic decoration. Caycedo is known internationally for her long-term project Be Dammed, an ongoing body of work examining the social and environmental consequences of hydroelectric dam construction across Latin America and beyond. Sap emerges from that larger inquiry, functioning as both artifact and argument. The materials are not metaphorical stand-ins but actual instruments of survival for fishing communities whose livelihoods and cultures are dismantled alongside the rivers they depend upon. The work implicates collection itself in questions of resource, custody, and care. For collectors, Sap offers something rare: a formally commanding object whose scale commands architectural space while remaining deeply tethered to urgent political and environmental questions. Signed by the artist and currently held at Instituto de Visión, the work represents a mature and resonant moment within one of the most consequential practices in contemporary Latin American art. Acquiring it means holding a piece of an ongoing reckoning with land, water, and the communities who inhabit them.

Medium
Hand-dyed fishing net, paracord, plastic rope, metal chain, carabineer
Dimensions
overall: 335 x 335 cm
Year
2018
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Instituto de Visión

Related themes

Mohn Art Collective

More works by Carolina Caycedo