Pigments: An Ethically Sourced Indigo & Upcycled Textile Exhibition
The vision for this show began with a few of key concepts: black hands meet textiles; upcycling found fabrics; and the ancestral influence of indigo. Indigo was one of the largest cash crops in America. The trafficking of enslaved West African peoples surged as a result of the high demand for indigo. Once the American colonies won their independence from Britain, indigo was soon sourced from India. However, for many diasporic African groups —the Gullah Geechee people, for instance— indigo remained an agricultural staple.
This Pigments exhibit serves as a living memory to remind the viewers just how earthbound we are. Yancy hand-dyed upcycled raw canvases with ethically-sourced, Moroccan indigo and saffron. The dyes mirror the vibrant resilience of the black diaspora; the found fabrics speak to sustainability, which is the story of human innovation itself. The exhibit will also showcase cold-pressed dyes within water, a melding of the universal elements (earth and water).Yancy’s hope is that the viewer will become a collector of hand-dyed, repurposed textiles while grasping the profound ancestral vibration of natural materials like indigo.
The Pigments Solo show was on exhibition at Summer 2021 Bed-Stuy Art House
