Untitled, from the series Vanishing Tapestries

Vanishing Tapestries reproduces documentary photographs of biological specimens taken during excavation of La Quebrada de los Cuervos gorge in eastern Uruguay. Stark black-and-white images of armadillos, birds, plants, skulls, and other remains are presented in a grid format suggestive of scientific classification. Cardillo selected the protected natural site as his subject due to its history as a military training ground in the 1980s, during which time the gorge suffered significant ecological damage. This work is just one element that originally was part of a larger installation of several tapestries, meant to overwhelm the viewer with its monumentality. Although fabricated from silkscreen printed on canvas (rather than from woven thread), Cardillo’s works refer to the medium of tapestry and its strong associations with European notions of royalty and power, as such displays of wealth traditionally decorated the walls of palaces.