tejiendo el petróleo (they called it ‘mena)

By María Elena Pombo

3 works

Tejiendo el Petróleo, Spanish for Weaving the Petroleum, is a series of sculptures made with petroleum from Cabimas, the Venezuelan city where the country’s oil industry was born and Pombo’s mother’s hometown. Her uncle, Régulo, received the crude oil as a present in 2020 to make his own gasoline due to shortages of this fuel. He later encouraged Pombo to make work with this material. In three visits between 2023 and 2024, they collaborated developing studies and pieces.

The works were made between Pombo’s grandmother’s house in Cabimas, and Pombo’s apartment in New York City.

The series was born from an intention to transform petroleum into yarn, by pulling from molecular gastronomy recipes that transform algae into plastics. A process that has been appropriated by the bio textile world to create so-called sustainable plastics from petroleum alternatives. Pombo re-appropriates these recipes by bringing crude oil to the mix as a way to domesticate the material that domesticated Venezuela’s contemporary identity through the act of weaving. Just as petroleum wove the Venezuelan society where Pombo grew up, she now weaves it in return.

At Zona Maco, three pieces of this series are being presented: Regulito & Carlitos, Ligia & Maria José, and Miguel, Aaron, Eloy & Enmanuel.

Regulito & Carlitos is composed of two fishing nets dipped into the material used to make petroleum-algae yarn. After seeing the labor-intensive process of making the yarn and later weaving the studies, Carlos (another uncle of Pombo) left and came back with fishing nets from his fisherman friends to dip them in the material. Work smarter, not harder, he said. The act of making the yarn and weaving is the work, she said, before agreeing to dip the nets with the help of her uncles. It was after all a collaboration. The work is named after the nicknames of these two uncles.

Ligia, María José is named, respectively, after Pombo’s grandmother, and the wife of her uncle Carlos. Both of which helped her unravel the petroleum yarn she made while in Cabimas. The yarn was woven in two looms Pombo made to match the height of these women.

Miguel, Aaron, Eloy & Enmanuel is composed of four small ball-like pieces made with the material used for the yarn. The piece is named after Pombo’s young cousins. A charismatic quartet that documented much of Pombo’s visits to Cabimas with different cameras she brought for this purpose.

The pieces from Tejiendo el Petróleo (Weaving the Petroleum) are part of They Called it Mena’, an ongoing research project exploring petroleum’s past, present, and future relationship with humanity, centering overlooked histories and narratives. It borrows its name from Mena’, the word used by the Wayuu people to refer to the black and viscous material that emanated from their territory’s subsoil.

Other works from this project include Venezuelan Petroleum for the South Bronx, a sculpture made from Pombo’s uncle’s petroleum that seeks to start conversations around “humanitarian aid” sent by Venezuela's government to the South Bronx since 2005 via CITGO, its USA-based petroleum company. Piece developed for the Bronx Museum 6th AIM Biennial.

Likewise, Telurismos a Tres Tiempos, a sculpture composed of a large panel of silk dyed with petroleum and corn-starch-based plastic material. It seeks to explore and expand upon Venezuela's petro-identity across timelines. From imaginary universes, in which Venezuela developed a thriving silk industry. To Popol Vuh derivations, using cornstarch. By embracing these real and imaginary realities, opening the door to true re-imaginations of post-petroleum futures in Venezuela and beyond. The piece has been shown at Sorondo Projects in Barcelona, and in Caracas at the 24 Salón Jóvenes con FIA, where it received a special mention.

While Venezuelan Petroleum for the South Bronx centers Venezuela’s petroleum relationship with non-Venezuelans and Telurismos a Tres Tiempos explores Venezuela’s petroleum relationship with Venezuelans, Tejiendo el Petróleo explores Venezuela’s petroleum relationship with Pombo’s family.