ART CITIES: London-Sara Flores

The complex and intricately geometric works of Peruvian artist Sara Flores express the practice of Kené – an ancient medium that is central to the artistic expression of the Shipibo-Konibo nation*, an Indigenous people residing along the Ucayali River. Flores’s artistic praxis is rooted in the traditions of her ancestral and cultural heritage and informed by the interconnectivity of the Amazonian ecosystem.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: White Cube Gallery Archive

Through the matrilineal and intergenerational practice of Kené, Flores inherits both the technical knowledge and philosophical principles affiliated with the medium. She applies prepared natural dyes sourced from her immediate environment to create labyrinthine configurations that map neural, psychological, elemental and ecological networks. The exhibition  “Bakish Mai” showcases new work by Peruvian artist and activist Sara Flores, including her first film and a series of abstract paintings. These works explore and visually translate Shipibo-Konibo ancestral knowledge, offering intricate representations of the Amazonian cosmos. The exhibition title—also the name of a school Flores co-founded in the Peruvian Amazon—means “Land of Yesterday and Tomorrow.” It reflects the Shipibo-Konibo’s circular understanding of time, where the past and future are deeply interconnected. At the heart of Flores’s work are Kené designs: flowing, geometric patterns that embody Shipibo knowledge systems, river networks, and their philosophy of reciprocity. Flores’s film, “Non Nete (A Flag for the Shipibo Nation)”, is a poetic tribute to her community’s strength and resilience. The Kené-covered flag, animated by wind and breath, becomes a metaphor for the Amazon as the Earth’s lungs—and the Shipibo-Konibo as its guardians. The Amazon, home to over 35,000 Shipibo-Konibo people, is both a physical and spiritual landscape. Flores lives and works in Yarinacocha, where traditional knowledge and communal life remain strong. Yet, as she notes, these communities face increasing threats from deforestation, oil spills, and land exploitation. In her “Pei Kené” series, Flores uses natural materials—wild cotton, river mud, and plant-based pigments—prepared with the help of family and community. This collective practice, known as minga, underscores the Shipibo value of mutual support and the spiritual power of plants. Trained by her mother, Flores paints without sketches, drawing from dreams and visions. Her latest works expand Kené’s abstract geometry with delicate images of sprouting leaves—vivid symbols of growth, healing, and plant intelligence. Through her art, Flores offers a new way of seeing: one that rejects human dominance over nature in favor of a shared, sacred ecology. Her work invites us to experience the world through Shipibo eyes, where beauty, knowledge, and existence flow along the same cosmic paths.

* Formerly two groups, they eventually became one tribe through intermarriage and communal rituals and are currently known as the Shipibo-Conibo people.  The Shipibo-Conibo have lived in the Amazonian rainforest for millennia. Many of their traditions are still practiced, such as ayahuasca medicine work. Medicine songs have inspired artistic tradition and decorative designs found in their clothing, pottery, tools, and textiles. Some of the urbanized people live around Pucallpa in the Ucayali region, an extensive indigenous zone. Most others live in scattered villages over a large area of jungle forest extending from Brazil to Ecuador.

Photo: Sara Flores, Non Nete (A flag for the Shipibo Nation), 2025, Single-channel video, colour and sound, Continuous loop, 3 minutes 33 seconds, © Sara Flores, Courtesy the artist and White Cube Gallery

Info: White Cube Gallery, 144 – 152 Bermondsey Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 9/7-7/9/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-16:00, www.whitecube.com/