[4] Critics also note the relevance of her work to the politics of ecological destruction, cultural homogenization, and economic disparity, particularly the way in which such phenomena disenfranchise the already powerless.

[8] Cecilia Vicuña was born in Santiago de Chile in 1948 and raised in La Florida, in the Maipo valley.

[11] She received her MFA from the University of Chile in 1971 and moved to London with a British Council Award in 1972 to attend the Slade School of Fine Art.

In the 80's she exhibited her work at MoMA, the Alternative Museum, and the Center for Inter American Relations in New York.

[17] Vicuña's commission Brain Forest Quipu for the Turbine Hall building at Tate Modern was unveiled to the public in 2022.

[28] These include Saboramí (1973), the first book testimony of the Military Coup in Chile, documenting the death of Salvador Allende,[29] The Precarious/Precario (1983), Cloud Net (2000),[30] Instan (2002)[31] and Spit Temple (2010),[32] a collection of her oral performances.

In 1966, for one of her most experimental books, El Diario Estúpido, Vicuña wrote 7,000 words a day, recording her emotions and experiences.

Vicuña refers to these fiber installations as quipus, referencing the indigenous writing systems suppressed by Spanish colonizing forces.

[41] Vicuña creates "precarious works" characterized by her use of materials that are often fragile, worn by the elements and/or biodegradable: a return to the environment.

[5] Between June 24, 1973-August 1974, she created over 400 precarios as an act of political resistance in response to General Pinochet's military coup of President Salvador Allende.

In 2018, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York acquired the 1972 portrait of Karl Marx from her Heroes of the Revolution series.

[54] In 2017, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans originated a traveling exhibition entitled Cecilia Vicuña: About To Happen.

[55] This exhibit was both a "lament and love letter to the sea", featuring washed up debris shaped into sculptures.

[52] Combining large strands of wool to make a gigantic quipu with a four channel video projection, Vicuña explored the experience of being separated from one's own culture and language.

[52] Vicuña is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York, England & Co. in London, and Galeria Patricia Ready in Santiago.

[58] In 2019, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania held the first major solo exhibition of Vicuña's work.

[59] Also in 2019 her first retrospective, Seehearing the Enlightened Failure was shown at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands.