UKHU-PACHA (2025)

Series Title: UKHU-PACHA
Medium: Acrylic on Canson Paper
Dimensions: 15 (24 x 32 cm)
Year: 2025

In "Ukhu-Pacha", Nano Ruiz explores the underworld not as a place of darkness, but as a dimension of germination, memory, and transformation. The series unfolds across fifteen modular panels, each reducing the mountain landscape into sharp, geometric silhouettes. Repetition becomes ritual, and variation becomes revelation.

The use of radiant color is central to Ruiz’s approach. Shifts between turquoise, magenta, blue, orange, violet, and yellow evoke multiple inner states — moments of density, eruption, balance, and clarity. Each panel functions as a threshold, suggesting the cyclical nature of descent and return that characterizes Ukhu-Pacha in Andean cosmology.

By structuring the series as a grid, Ruiz recalls the logics of Andean textiles and khipus: modular systems where knowledge is encoded in variation. The mountain forms, often understood as apus or guardians, are here reframed as inner landscapes — silhouettes of memory and potential that rise from within.

"Ukhu-Pacha" is not a depiction of landscape, but a cosmogram of the inner world. It invites viewers to reflect on their own underworld — the fertile, hidden dimension where transformation takes root.