9 The harmony and balance between the whole and the partic- ular is fundamental tomy work. Its most evident manifestation is in the different qualities of the textures which is defined by the proportion of the basic units in relation to the complete piece. Modifying these scales sets the emotional tone of the surface and gives rise to the different groups of tapestries. The titles of my series reveal various distinct themes: Al- chemies, Moonbaskets, Lost Images, Ceremonial Cloths,Writings, Forests, Rivers, Mountains, Moons, Square Suns, Umbras and Stelae . Alquimia 13 , the Metropolitan´s tapestry, belongs to the Alquimias series which were the first clear and precise incarna- tions of a vague idea that had dawned upon me on seeing Lucy Rie´s mended vases . The first thirteen works in this series were based on the proportion of the human figure. I did this in homage to a pre-Columbian gold mantle I had the fortune of seeing in Peru´s Gold Museum. During that same visit to Peru in 1969 I was also overwhelmed by the ancestral intelligence —the unconscious high mathematics—present in everything textile in ancient Andean culture. It was an awareness that seemed almost genetic. I remember entering the home of an ageless Quechua woman who was rapidly moving her fingers and hands in the penumbra of her mud hut, weaving an endless path… as easily as if she were breathing. I felt an affinity with her absorbed and distant concentration. It has always been my desire to induce a similar state of silence in the places where I install my pieces. With the Alquimias I also became aware that gold made weaving look heavy and flexible . These tapestries hang in a extremely vertical gravitational way, a quality that makes each tapestry a dense inhabitant of its own space. I further emphasized their presence by separating the pieces from the wall to make them live in their own unique space. 13. Leaf Storm, 1971. 15. Alquimia 73, 1988. 16. Yanoama baskets. 14. Different varieties of strips and strands.