Fernando Poyón 

Born 1982, Guatemala 

Lives and works in Chi`xot (San Juan Comalapa), Guatemala Maya Kaqchikel 

Bringing joy to the earth 2025 

pencils, concaste, bamboo 

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain 

Courtesy of the artist 

Made of 1500 hexagonally-shaped cedarwood pencils, Bringing joy to the earth focuses on the wellspring of Indigenous knowledge passed down, and nourished, by the artist’s grandmother, mother and the Earth itself. Milpas (corn stalks) – a staple of Guatemalan diets and culture – sprout abundantly in representation of a culture constantly renewing and shifting with the cycles of the seasons as much as the changes of the contemporary world. 

In previous works, Fernando Poyón has used similar standard-issue pencils as a comment on the ways in which Western education systems corrupt Indigenous Kaqchikel language, knowledge and ways of life. However, in Bringing joy to the earth, the pencils are without their signature pink rubber, literally and symbolically rejecting this erasure to become, instead, tools of growth. For Poyón, writing and recording Kaqchikel knowledge is not only an act of agency but, in a rapidly changing climate, adaptation. In bridging ancestral wisdom with contemporary environmental and cultural awareness, these simple materials are remade as sacred agricultural forms.