The arpillera movement in Chile, 1974-1996

This thesis presents an analysis of the ‘arpillera world’, the network of people cooperating to make, distribute and sell arpilleras (denunciatory wall hangings made by victims of political repression and economic deprivation in Chile). It adds to Becker’s (1982) theory of ‘art worlds’ a political dimension, which has two components: (1) national and international political and economic contexts impact both artworks and art worlds, and (2) collective artistic activity in a context of political repression can foster a political consciousness in the artists. Art, it finds, is an important but understudied part of political movements, serving to inform, arouse, and shape the beliefs of diverse sets of movement actors. The arpilleras provided their ‘consumers’ (Chilean exiles and human rights activists in Europe and North America) with information about the state of affairs in Chile, and helped arouse in them the desire to oust Pinochet. The collective making of arpilleras caused the radicalisation of the shantytown women who made them. The thesis also constructs a chronology of the arpillera. It examines changes over time in the arpillera (from denunciatory to bucolic) and distribution system (from solidarity-oriented to commercially oriented), in the light of anthropological and sociological theories of change in art forms. It links the sociology of art and social movements literatures by demonstrating how changes in art worlds can cause changes in levels of activism of the artists/activists. The demand for bucolic arpilleras was partly responsible for the de-radicalisation of the shantytown women who made them. Finally, the thesis suggests that reciprocity in the fieldwork context can cause problems for the researcher because of the researcher’s ever-changing membership status in the group she studies, and because of differences (in culture, power, and knowledge) between herself and her subjects. Data collection involved participant observation, interviews, documentary sources, and the analysis of approximately five hundred arpilleras, and took place in England, Switzerland, France, and Chile.