Establishing my community indigo vat during the Pandemic, in August, 2021, I invited two local artists at a time to try samples over a two hour period. I often did two sessions a week, outside. If they came more than once, I asked them to make a donation to their local food bank. It was a wonderful way to safely connect with other people and spend time exploring and has become a community engaged art project. In the first two years, 45 people participated. They included artists, non-artists, retired scientists, and students from a wide demographic background. They were encouraged to try whatever interested them as long as it was on a smaller scale and not large clothing items that hogged the vat for others. We resist dyed fabrics of all kinds, plus yarn, embroidery thread, wool, handmade paper and vintage textiles. ,We all learned so much from one another and everyone came out a star because it was so easy to find success. On days we were not gathering as a community, Each dyeing session was documented on my Instagram feed, astridhbennett
I also have another motive when working with others. In understanding how magical indigo is, it’s also possible to see how it became a valuable colonial commodity. With deep historical roots over hundreds of years, indigo use and cultivation has had a deep influence on cultures, both good and bad. Its mixed past in this country includes enslaved people being forced to tend to indigo fields in colonial America and elsewhere; in India, the forced cultivation of indigo, for British naval uniforms, instead of food, resulted in a terrible famiine. West Africa has a rich and long tradition of indigo dyeing, as does India, South and Central America, Mediterranean France & Morocco, and Asia. In Iowa, indigo was used for calico printing in the Amana colonies. Currently, Stony Creek Colors is rekindling indigo cultivation in this country on fields formerly devoted to tobacco. Indigo is part of the Fiber Shed movements. This not only helps small scale farmers but has an influence on the clothing industry.
My long term organic indigo-henna vats were made using the 1-2-3 method as first described by Michel Garcia and fine-tuned by Botanical Colors. Maiwa Natural Dyes, in Canada, is also a great source. With daily stirring and regular infusions of the sugar element (fructose or cooked banana juice) I maintained them over many months, rebooting them when necessary and bringing them inside during the winter months.
The INDIGO! group exhibition which I curated in 2022, at Public Space One, Iowa City, IA, featured 12 artists using diverse media from the project. I also did a residency that year at Constellation Studios (Lincoln, NE), establishing a community indigo vat and exploring personal work in Mokuhanga, wood block printing. Since that time, I have also taught workshops at Public Space One, for the Iowa Art Educators, and more.
Exploring indigo also allowed me to see how I might incorporate more sustainable natural dyeing into my own work in a way that fits in with the visual language I use. As many have, I’ve been grappling with the questions around sustainable practice for the last 10 years. In 2022, I continued with a deep dive into natural dyes, including mordant printing, and using purchased and foraged materials from my neighborhood, garden and beyond. Community indigo and other dyeing experiments are documented on my Instagram feed, astridhbennett.
