View allAll Photos Tagged BodyPainted
Taken at UVatar blacklight gathering, Netherlands, a bi-annual UV Bodypainting experience that encourages creativity and freeflow.
Tag team between Wolf's Bodymagic and Victoria Gugenheim Body Art
3D Chromadepth, UV Bodypaint that works with 3D Chromadepth glasses. A film detailing the UVatar experience can be found at:
www.youtube.com/user/VictoriaGugenheim
Photographer is also an internationally acclaimed bodypainter, Wolf Reicherter of Wolf's Bodymagic
UV Bodypainting by London and international bodypainter, Victoria Gugenheim.
More of the work can be found at:
UV Bodypainting by Wolf's Bodymagic, taken for the German Film School. More of Wolf's work can be found at:
Photography, art direction and bridging elements by London Bodypainter, Victoria Gugenheim Body Art. Both of us work worldwide to create these works of art.
More of these works and new bodypaintings can be found here:
Worst ever building I ever see. This building looks like bodypainted nudist. Once looks nude (no marble/aluminium panel), still nude. This even worse for 4-star hotel.
Estimated 10 floors.
Gedung terburuk yang pernah dilihat, wujudnya seperti orang bugil yang tubuhnya diberi lukisan. Walau dicat, tetap saja bugil. Parah untuk hotel berbintang 4.
Estimasi 10 lantai.
"Magic of Believing" by Johanna Pinksu Marjomaa.
Johanna worked with her assistant Valentina painting a unicorn, flowers and bees.
Johanna explained that her subject was meaningful as without flowers and bees we would not exist either.
In February 2006 Craig Tracy opened the PaintedAlive Gallery in his home city, New Orleans, La, USA. PaintedAlive is the first gallery in the world dedicated exclusively to fine art Bodypainted images. But where did his passion for using the human body as a canvas start?
READ ON...
In the early days of the Rotterdam Dance Parade, everything was possible. Including this, by a erotic magazine, sponsored float with bodypainted girls.
Canon Eos-1N, Fujicolor 100iso
In June 2024, I travelled into the Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil’s first demarcated indigenous territory. To get there, I flew from Sao Paolo to Goiania and then took a bus overnight to Querência, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, where we were picked up by men from the Xingu village of Afukuri.
The Indigenous Park is host to a large number of villages in the Upper Xingu area, the inhabitants speaking fourteen different language (of five different language families). In Afukuri, where I stayed, Kuikoro / Kuikuru is the indigenous language (identified as part of the Cariban group). Villagers also communicate in Brazilian Portuguese with varying levels of fluency. While I speak and read French and Spanish, and can make therefore headway with written Portuguese, my spoken Portuguese is limited, so my ability to converse with the villagers relied on translation.
The Park was the world’s first ever dedicated indigenous national park (established in 1961 through the hard work of the Villas-Boas brothers). When the various ethic groups settled along the Xingu is not fully determined – generally believed to be predominantly between the 12th and 16th centuries but one ethnic group, the Trumai, for example, only settled there in the 19th century, perhaps seeking refuge from settler incursions. The Xingu area, not having great rubber or mineral assets, had a lower priority during Brazil’s expansion, which helped protect the park, but various areas directly outside have now been deforested.
Culturally, one thing I found interesting was the philosophy of adapting to the modern world while retaining their identity. Xingu leaders will often be seen in traditional costume e.g. when outside on political mission. The option apparently is either to work hard to maintain their unique culture or to ‘become just another Brazilian in poverty’.
The village structure is typically a circular plaza with houses – ocas – on the perimeter and a central meeting house / men’s house (where traditionally the long sacred flutes that only the men can play are kept). In Afukuri we saw the meeting of the old and the new – the ocas, their roofs traditionally made from thatched layers of sapé grasses, becoming ever more challenging in the era of deforestation, were not being repaired with grass, but with plastic tarpaulins. One reason for this, we were told, was that following the death of the chief, the village would normally move to another location once the funerary festival (Kuarup / Kwarup – the most famous of the Xingu festivals) had taken place, but that would require financial resources that the village did not yet have. Therefore, all the current ocas (which can stretch to 30m in length and 10m in height) will in due course be abandoned, with entirely new structures erected in their place in the future village, leading to a decision not to undertake cost- and labour-intensive thatch repairs. In Afukuri, the men’s house was not an oca (which historic photos from other villages led me to expect) but a columned shelter without walls, which provided us with shade as we watched life in the village.
The modern world was evidenced not just by the blue plastic roof-sheeting, but by the existence of small modern buildings outside the oca perimeter – one structure to host visiting medical/dental professionals. A second, a shower/toilet block (I think built because of these visitors, but available also to us). A generator powers a water pump / electricity for several hours a day. Solar panels were being delivered during my time there – and I did wonder what would happen to the water pipes and solar installations when the village moved, a very modern problem.
Our visit was chosen to coincide with three village festivals – the Javari / Yawari (a war/peace ritual with men mock-fighting), the Taquara / Takuaga inauguration of new urua long flutes (often connected with a girls’ coming of age ritual) and the Yamurikuma women’s festival, where women take on make roles, such as being permitted to wrestle against each other in the traditionally male huka-huka.
The more famous (and larger) Kuarup festivals draw visitors from Brazil and around the world, but in Afukuri, it was just our small group of travellers, allocated a section of on oca for our tents. I enjoyed watching the preparations as much as the festivals: body painting, feathers, and colourful textiles around ankles and knees (especially for the huka-huka). Important among the body paints was the red urucum pigment (similar in colour perhaps to Venetian red or Indian red oil paints) from the achiote plant (known in some places as the ‘lipstick tree’).
Villages have their specialities and Afukuri is known for fishing. The staple meal in dry season is mashed fish with a manioc/cassava flat bread (the flour toasted in large circular breads that are then shared). The pequi nut, important to the Xingu, is usually harvested in Jan/Feb and I therefore didn’t see any and don’t know how much is used for diet and how much for ceremonies.
One thing I will never forget is an unexpected aspect of the Yamurikuma festival: in it the Xingu women fight off males. I (and the other men in our group) looked forward to watching this, but had not been warned that the only men to be attacked would be our little band of travellers. On the evening when the Yamurikuma took place we were bemused at the unhappy look on the women’s faces and what seemed to be a premature end of the festivities. The next morning we learned that the village chief had discovered that we had been unaware of our role as victims – and he had wisely, seeing us fully dressed, with camera gear, glasses and mobile phones, decided that a surprise attack might not be appropriate. The women were disappointed at losing their opportunity. Fortunately, we were willing to accommodate them, and two days later, we awaited our fates by the mens’ house in the middle of the plaza. We had mostly reduced our clothing to underwear and disposable tee-shirts (to protect myself from the sun, I used an old cotton sleeping bag liner as a toga). When the women arrived, they poked and pinched us, and covered our faces and bodies in a resinous orange-yellow that later took great effort (scrubbing with river sand) to remove. The Afukuri women’s Yamurikuma honour restored, they completed their festival by paying visits en groupe to the village's ocas.
#body #painting #handpainted & #airbrushed #SPFX #SpiderGirl #MaryJaneWatson by #samanthawpg
S.A.C. (Samantha Ann Christianson ) #Freelanceartist #Winnipeg Top Professional #BodyPaintingWinnnipeg Visual Eye Candy
#C4CentralCanadaComicCon Oct 31st .Nov 1st. Nov 2nd. 2014
#EuropeanBodyArt
#GothicLolitaWigs
#model Carli
"Electric Dreams"
This was playing on my mind. Taken Mid 2011 and completed with greasepaint as an experiment, I'd done nothing with it. I decided to experiment and this was the result. It has both a retro and a modern feel and is also bright as all fornication, which my work usually isn't, and sometimes it's nice to take a break from the norm to do something a bit brighter.
Bodypainting and Post production by Victoria Gugenheim Body Art
©2012 Victoria Gugenheim
Taken at UVatar blacklight gathering, Netherlands, a bi-annual UV Bodypainting experience that encourages creativity and freeflow.
Tag team between Wolf's Bodymagic and Victoria Gugenheim Body Art
3D Chromadepth, UV Bodypaint that works with 3D Chromadepth glasses. A film detailing the UVatar experience can be found at:
www.youtube.com/user/VictoriaGugenheim
Photographer is also an internationally acclaimed bodypainter, Wolf Reicherter of Wolf's Bodymagic
UV Bodypainting by London and international bodypainter, Victoria Gugenheim.
More of the work can be found at:
Taken at UVatar blacklight gathering, Netherlands, a bi-annual UV Bodypainting experience that encourages creativity and freeflow.
3D Chromadepth, UV Bodypaint that works with 3D Chromadepth glasses. A film detailing the UVatar experience can be found at:
www.youtube.com/user/VictoriaGugenheim
Photographer is also an internationally acclaimed bodypainter, Wolf Reicherter of Wolf's Bodymagic
UV Bodypainting by London and international bodypainter, Victoria Gugenheim.
More of the work can be found at:
www.facebook.com/BodypaintingUK
Photographer: Wolf Reicherter
Bodypainting: Victoria Gugenheim (DragsterBot)
Wolf Reicherter/ Wolf's Bodymagic (Bubble Brothers)
#WinnipegJets #BodyPainted #Handpainted #airbrushed #spfx
#ProfessionalBodyPainting by Samantha Wpg @VisualEyeCandy
C4 - Central Canada Comic Con
#C4WinnipegCentral Canada #ComicCon
2014 Oct 31st .Nov 1st. Nov 2nd.
European Body Art #europeanbodyart #model #RaveBarbie
Erica Lynne Pauls
S.A.C. (Samantha Ann Christianson ) Freelance artist
Winnipeg Top Professional Body Painting Visual Eye Candy
winnipegbodypainting.blogspot.ca/2014/08/c4-central-canada-comic-con-oct-31st.html
visualeyecandy.deviantart.com/journal/C4CentralCanadaComi...
After the shoot, as Rhawnie and I were looking over the pics I said to her that this looked like she was Ooogling the other model. She said that she was. I love that girl!
In June 2024, I travelled into the Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil’s first demarcated indigenous territory. To get there, I flew from Sao Paolo to Goiania and then took a bus overnight to Querência, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, where we were picked up by men from the Xingu village of Afukuri.
The Indigenous Park is host to a large number of villages in the Upper Xingu area, the inhabitants speaking fourteen different language (of five different language families). In Afukuri, where I stayed, Kuikoro / Kuikuru is the indigenous language (identified as part of the Cariban group). Villagers also communicate in Brazilian Portuguese with varying levels of fluency. While I speak and read French and Spanish, and can make therefore headway with written Portuguese, my spoken Portuguese is limited, so my ability to converse with the villagers relied on translation.
The Park was the world’s first ever dedicated indigenous national park (established in 1961 through the hard work of the Villas-Boas brothers). When the various ethic groups settled along the Xingu is not fully determined – generally believed to be predominantly between the 12th and 16th centuries but one ethnic group, the Trumai, for example, only settled there in the 19th century, perhaps seeking refuge from settler incursions. The Xingu area, not having great rubber or mineral assets, had a lower priority during Brazil’s expansion, which helped protect the park, but various areas directly outside have now been deforested.
Culturally, one thing I found interesting was the philosophy of adapting to the modern world while retaining their identity. Xingu leaders will often be seen in traditional costume e.g. when outside on political mission. The option apparently is either to work hard to maintain their unique culture or to ‘become just another Brazilian in poverty’.
The village structure is typically a circular plaza with houses – ocas – on the perimeter and a central meeting house / men’s house (where traditionally the long sacred flutes that only the men can play are kept). In Afukuri we saw the meeting of the old and the new – the ocas, their roofs traditionally made from thatched layers of sapé grasses, becoming ever more challenging in the era of deforestation, were not being repaired with grass, but with plastic tarpaulins. One reason for this, we were told, was that following the death of the chief, the village would normally move to another location once the funerary festival (Kuarup / Kwarup – the most famous of the Xingu festivals) had taken place, but that would require financial resources that the village did not yet have. Therefore, all the current ocas (which can stretch to 30m in length and 10m in height) will in due course be abandoned, with entirely new structures erected in their place in the future village, leading to a decision not to undertake cost- and labour-intensive thatch repairs. In Afukuri, the men’s house was not an oca (which historic photos from other villages led me to expect) but a columned shelter without walls, which provided us with shade as we watched life in the village.
The modern world was evidenced not just by the blue plastic roof-sheeting, but by the existence of small modern buildings outside the oca perimeter – one structure to host visiting medical/dental professionals. A second, a shower/toilet block (I think built because of these visitors, but available also to us). A generator powers a water pump / electricity for several hours a day. Solar panels were being delivered during my time there – and I did wonder what would happen to the water pipes and solar installations when the village moved, a very modern problem.
Our visit was chosen to coincide with three village festivals – the Javari / Yawari (a war/peace ritual with men mock-fighting), the Taquara / Takuaga inauguration of new urua long flutes (often connected with a girls’ coming of age ritual) and the Yamurikuma women’s festival, where women take on make roles, such as being permitted to wrestle against each other in the traditionally male huka-huka.
The more famous (and larger) Kuarup festivals draw visitors from Brazil and around the world, but in Afukuri, it was just our small group of travellers, allocated a section of on oca for our tents. I enjoyed watching the preparations as much as the festivals: body painting, feathers, and colourful textiles around ankles and knees (especially for the huka-huka). Important among the body paints was the red urucum pigment (similar in colour perhaps to Venetian red or Indian red oil paints) from the achiote plant (known in some places as the ‘lipstick tree’).
Villages have their specialities and Afukuri is known for fishing. The staple meal in dry season is mashed fish with a manioc/cassava flat bread (the flour toasted in large circular breads that are then shared). The pequi nut, important to the Xingu, is usually harvested in Jan/Feb and I therefore didn’t see any and don’t know how much is used for diet and how much for ceremonies.
One thing I will never forget is an unexpected aspect of the Yamurikuma festival: in it the Xingu women fight off males. I (and the other men in our group) looked forward to watching this, but had not been warned that the only men to be attacked would be our little band of travellers. On the evening when the Yamurikuma took place we were bemused at the unhappy look on the women’s faces and what seemed to be a premature end of the festivities. The next morning we learned that the village chief had discovered that we had been unaware of our role as victims – and he had wisely, seeing us fully dressed, with camera gear, glasses and mobile phones, decided that a surprise attack might not be appropriate. The women were disappointed at losing their opportunity. Fortunately, we were willing to accommodate them, and two days later, we awaited our fates by the mens’ house in the middle of the plaza. We had mostly reduced our clothing to underwear and disposable tee-shirts (to protect myself from the sun, I used an old cotton sleeping bag liner as a toga). When the women arrived, they poked and pinched us, and covered our faces and bodies in a resinous orange-yellow that later took great effort (scrubbing with river sand) to remove. The Afukuri women’s Yamurikuma honour restored, they completed their festival by paying visits en groupe to the village's ocas.
In June 2024, I travelled into the Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil’s first demarcated indigenous territory. To get there, I flew from Sao Paolo to Goiania and then took a bus overnight to Querência, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, where we were picked up by men from the Xingu village of Afukuri.
The Indigenous Park is host to a large number of villages in the Upper Xingu area, the inhabitants speaking fourteen different language (of five different language families). In Afukuri, where I stayed, Kuikoro / Kuikuru is the indigenous language (identified as part of the Cariban group). Villagers also communicate in Brazilian Portuguese with varying levels of fluency. While I speak and read French and Spanish, and can make therefore headway with written Portuguese, my spoken Portuguese is limited, so my ability to converse with the villagers relied on translation.
The Park was the world’s first ever dedicated indigenous national park (established in 1961 through the hard work of the Villas-Boas brothers). When the various ethic groups settled along the Xingu is not fully determined – generally believed to be predominantly between the 12th and 16th centuries but one ethnic group, the Trumai, for example, only settled there in the 19th century, perhaps seeking refuge from settler incursions. The Xingu area, not having great rubber or mineral assets, had a lower priority during Brazil’s expansion, which helped protect the park, but various areas directly outside have now been deforested.
Culturally, one thing I found interesting was the philosophy of adapting to the modern world while retaining their identity. Xingu leaders will often be seen in traditional costume e.g. when outside on political mission. The option apparently is either to work hard to maintain their unique culture or to ‘become just another Brazilian in poverty’.
The village structure is typically a circular plaza with houses – ocas – on the perimeter and a central meeting house / men’s house (where traditionally the long sacred flutes that only the men can play are kept). In Afukuri we saw the meeting of the old and the new – the ocas, their roofs traditionally made from thatched layers of sapé grasses, becoming ever more challenging in the era of deforestation, were not being repaired with grass, but with plastic tarpaulins. One reason for this, we were told, was that following the death of the chief, the village would normally move to another location once the funerary festival (Kuarup / Kwarup – the most famous of the Xingu festivals) had taken place, but that would require financial resources that the village did not yet have. Therefore, all the current ocas (which can stretch to 30m in length and 10m in height) will in due course be abandoned, with entirely new structures erected in their place in the future village, leading to a decision not to undertake cost- and labour-intensive thatch repairs. In Afukuri, the men’s house was not an oca (which historic photos from other villages led me to expect) but a columned shelter without walls, which provided us with shade as we watched life in the village.
The modern world was evidenced not just by the blue plastic roof-sheeting, but by the existence of small modern buildings outside the oca perimeter – one structure to host visiting medical/dental professionals. A second, a shower/toilet block (I think built because of these visitors, but available also to us). A generator powers a water pump / electricity for several hours a day. Solar panels were being delivered during my time there – and I did wonder what would happen to the water pipes and solar installations when the village moved, a very modern problem.
Our visit was chosen to coincide with three village festivals – the Javari / Yawari (a war/peace ritual with men mock-fighting), the Taquara / Takuaga inauguration of new urua long flutes (often connected with a girls’ coming of age ritual) and the Yamurikuma women’s festival, where women take on make roles, such as being permitted to wrestle against each other in the traditionally male huka-huka.
The more famous (and larger) Kuarup festivals draw visitors from Brazil and around the world, but in Afukuri, it was just our small group of travellers, allocated a section of on oca for our tents. I enjoyed watching the preparations as much as the festivals: body painting, feathers, and colourful textiles around ankles and knees (especially for the huka-huka). Important among the body paints was the red urucum pigment (similar in colour perhaps to Venetian red or Indian red oil paints) from the achiote plant (known in some places as the ‘lipstick tree’).
Villages have their specialities and Afukuri is known for fishing. The staple meal in dry season is mashed fish with a manioc/cassava flat bread (the flour toasted in large circular breads that are then shared). The pequi nut, important to the Xingu, is usually harvested in Jan/Feb and I therefore didn’t see any and don’t know how much is used for diet and how much for ceremonies.
One thing I will never forget is an unexpected aspect of the Yamurikuma festival: in it the Xingu women fight off males. I (and the other men in our group) looked forward to watching this, but had not been warned that the only men to be attacked would be our little band of travellers. On the evening when the Yamurikuma took place we were bemused at the unhappy look on the women’s faces and what seemed to be a premature end of the festivities. The next morning we learned that the village chief had discovered that we had been unaware of our role as victims – and he had wisely, seeing us fully dressed, with camera gear, glasses and mobile phones, decided that a surprise attack might not be appropriate. The women were disappointed at losing their opportunity. Fortunately, we were willing to accommodate them, and two days later, we awaited our fates by the mens’ house in the middle of the plaza. We had mostly reduced our clothing to underwear and disposable tee-shirts (to protect myself from the sun, I used an old cotton sleeping bag liner as a toga). When the women arrived, they poked and pinched us, and covered our faces and bodies in a resinous orange-yellow that later took great effort (scrubbing with river sand) to remove. The Afukuri women’s Yamurikuma honour restored, they completed their festival by paying visits en groupe to the village's ocas.
Taken at UVatar blacklight gathering, Netherlands, a bi-annual UV Bodypainting experience that encourages creativity and freeflow.
3D Chromadepth, UV Bodypaint that works with 3D Chromadepth glasses. A film detailing the UVatar experience can be found at:
www.youtube.com/user/VictoriaGugenheim
Photographer is also an internationally acclaimed bodypainter, Wolf Reicherter of Wolf's Bodymagic
UV Bodypainting by London and international bodypainter, Victoria Gugenheim.
More of the work can be found at:
www.facebook.com/BodypaintingUK
Photographer: Wolf Reicherter
Bodypainting: Victoria Gugenheim
UV Bodypainting by Wolf's Bodymagic, taken for the German Film School. More of Wolf's work can be found at:
Photography, art direction and bridging elements by London Bodypainter, Victoria Gugenheim Body Art. More of these works and new bodypaintings can be found here:
#WinnipegJets #BodyPainted #Handpainted #airbrushed #spfx
#ProfessionalBodyPainting by Samantha Wpg @VisualEyeCandy
C4 - Central Canada Comic Con
#C4WinnipegCentral Canada #ComicCon
2014 Oct 31st .Nov 1st. Nov 2nd.
European Body Art #europeanbodyart #model #RaveBarbie
Erica Lynne Pauls
S.A.C. (Samantha Ann Christianson ) Freelance artist
Winnipeg Top Professional Body Painting Visual Eye Candy
winnipegbodypainting.blogspot.ca/2014/08/c4-central-canada-comic-con-oct-31st.html
visualeyecandy.deviantart.com/journal/C4CentralCanadaComi...
Art by Lana Chromium
« I went to the playa on a first day of Burning Man and saw that beautiful statue "R-evolution" by Marco Cochrane
I fell in love with that graceful statue and got so inspired to paint women as that art piece and place her in front to photograph I thought I will share my vision of freedom and inspiration through my brush. Next day I was cruising around that statue and met Alissa (girl with short hair same as statue) I asked her if she wants to be part of the project , she said yes and we moved on. I bodypainted her under statue it took us 2-3 hours we got about 5-6 Polaroid photos of the process from random explorers and every 5 minutes when people was discovering that statue is breathing we hear "She breaths... no way.... she really breaths" 😊 and yes that was breathing statue, her chest was slowly moving up with each peaceful breath. 💖🎨
That was art project inspired by art project and painted with love on the Playa. »
Photo used with permission from Lana Chromium.
The other one:
www.flickr.com/photos/doneastwest/37295805405/in/datepost...
To the top of the R-Evolution album.:
www.flickr.com/photos/doneastwest/albums/7215765449796717...
___
- [ Lana- vertical format photos come out too small in Flickr.
- there seemed to be extra space created by the aspect ratio of your camera, so i took out what seemed like unneeded space above R-Evolution.
- if you want, i will restore the original without the crop. d.
___
- file name- REV paint b.
In June 2024, I travelled into the Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil’s first demarcated indigenous territory. To get there, I flew from Sao Paolo to Goiania and then took a bus overnight to Querência, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, where we were picked up by men from the Xingu village of Afukuri.
The Indigenous Park is host to a large number of villages in the Upper Xingu area, the inhabitants speaking fourteen different language (of five different language families). In Afukuri, where I stayed, Kuikoro / Kuikuru is the indigenous language (identified as part of the Cariban group). Villagers also communicate in Brazilian Portuguese with varying levels of fluency. While I speak and read French and Spanish, and can make therefore headway with written Portuguese, my spoken Portuguese is limited, so my ability to converse with the villagers relied on translation.
The Park was the world’s first ever dedicated indigenous national park (established in 1961 through the hard work of the Villas-Boas brothers). When the various ethic groups settled along the Xingu is not fully determined – generally believed to be predominantly between the 12th and 16th centuries but one ethnic group, the Trumai, for example, only settled there in the 19th century, perhaps seeking refuge from settler incursions. The Xingu area, not having great rubber or mineral assets, had a lower priority during Brazil’s expansion, which helped protect the park, but various areas directly outside have now been deforested.
Culturally, one thing I found interesting was the philosophy of adapting to the modern world while retaining their identity. Xingu leaders will often be seen in traditional costume e.g. when outside on political mission. The option apparently is either to work hard to maintain their unique culture or to ‘become just another Brazilian in poverty’.
The village structure is typically a circular plaza with houses – ocas – on the perimeter and a central meeting house / men’s house (where traditionally the long sacred flutes that only the men can play are kept). In Afukuri we saw the meeting of the old and the new – the ocas, their roofs traditionally made from thatched layers of sapé grasses, becoming ever more challenging in the era of deforestation, were not being repaired with grass, but with plastic tarpaulins. One reason for this, we were told, was that following the death of the chief, the village would normally move to another location once the funerary festival (Kuarup / Kwarup – the most famous of the Xingu festivals) had taken place, but that would require financial resources that the village did not yet have. Therefore, all the current ocas (which can stretch to 30m in length and 10m in height) will in due course be abandoned, with entirely new structures erected in their place in the future village, leading to a decision not to undertake cost- and labour-intensive thatch repairs. In Afukuri, the men’s house was not an oca (which historic photos from other villages led me to expect) but a columned shelter without walls, which provided us with shade as we watched life in the village.
The modern world was evidenced not just by the blue plastic roof-sheeting, but by the existence of small modern buildings outside the oca perimeter – one structure to host visiting medical/dental professionals. A second, a shower/toilet block (I think built because of these visitors, but available also to us). A generator powers a water pump / electricity for several hours a day. Solar panels were being delivered during my time there – and I did wonder what would happen to the water pipes and solar installations when the village moved, a very modern problem.
Our visit was chosen to coincide with three village festivals – the Javari / Yawari (a war/peace ritual with men mock-fighting), the Taquara / Takuaga inauguration of new urua long flutes (often connected with a girls’ coming of age ritual) and the Yamurikuma women’s festival, where women take on make roles, such as being permitted to wrestle against each other in the traditionally male huka-huka.
The more famous (and larger) Kuarup festivals draw visitors from Brazil and around the world, but in Afukuri, it was just our small group of travellers, allocated a section of on oca for our tents. I enjoyed watching the preparations as much as the festivals: body painting, feathers, and colourful textiles around ankles and knees (especially for the huka-huka). Important among the body paints was the red urucum pigment (similar in colour perhaps to Venetian red or Indian red oil paints) from the achiote plant (known in some places as the ‘lipstick tree’).
Villages have their specialities and Afukuri is known for fishing. The staple meal in dry season is mashed fish with a manioc/cassava flat bread (the flour toasted in large circular breads that are then shared). The pequi nut, important to the Xingu, is usually harvested in Jan/Feb and I therefore didn’t see any and don’t know how much is used for diet and how much for ceremonies.
One thing I will never forget is an unexpected aspect of the Yamurikuma festival: in it the Xingu women fight off males. I (and the other men in our group) looked forward to watching this, but had not been warned that the only men to be attacked would be our little band of travellers. On the evening when the Yamurikuma took place we were bemused at the unhappy look on the women’s faces and what seemed to be a premature end of the festivities. The next morning we learned that the village chief had discovered that we had been unaware of our role as victims – and he had wisely, seeing us fully dressed, with camera gear, glasses and mobile phones, decided that a surprise attack might not be appropriate. The women were disappointed at losing their opportunity. Fortunately, we were willing to accommodate them, and two days later, we awaited our fates by the mens’ house in the middle of the plaza. We had mostly reduced our clothing to underwear and disposable tee-shirts (to protect myself from the sun, I used an old cotton sleeping bag liner as a toga). When the women arrived, they poked and pinched us, and covered our faces and bodies in a resinous orange-yellow that later took great effort (scrubbing with river sand) to remove. The Afukuri women’s Yamurikuma honour restored, they completed their festival by paying visits en groupe to the village's ocas.
One of the people I bodypainted at the friday afternoon Black Rock U bodypaint event, he wanted these spirals, because something similar was worn in a favorite movie of his, North Shore.
If you're wondering what the gas cans behind his left shoulder are for, well those are for serving cocktails, of course.