Kené: The Visual Language of Nature

publication winter 2023

The cultural and aesthetic design language of kené comes from healing visions and contemplations about the energy pathways that run through nature in the Shipibo and other tribal traditions of the Amazon Basin of South America and express a profound connection between humankind and the ecosystem. Integrated with medical songs, these patterns come to men and women cultural practitioners in different ways through various psychotropic plant medicine rituals that induce hallucinations and altered consciousness. Kené reflects a complex cosmology inspired by nature and deeply reverent observations of the environment, wildlife, the Milky Way, the jungle's geography, and others.

There are 2500 trees species in Asia, Europe, North America, and across Pasifika, and, an additional 50000 species in the tropics, many still undiscovered. The kené Project evokes Amazonas tribal traditions of honouring the spirit within plants, with the reality of our dwindling biodiversity—half of all known vascular plants are projected to become extinct by the 2040s. Since 2004, when artist Nu’a Bon sailed across Pasifika to every island nation, traveled by train and overland vehicle across Europe, Africa, and Asia, and drove across the Americas, the equivalent of over twice the circumference of the Earth, in order to honour these healing plant spirits.