Categories: Cornelia Feye, THE BUZZ

THE BUZZ: Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo. Immersion in a Sea of Blue

by Cornelia Feye

October 2, 2024

Entering the exhibition Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo at Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, visitors are immediately immersed in a sea of blue Indigo—the color of ocean tides, starry skies, or a pair of vintage Levi jeans. The precious substance can make fabrics of wool, silk or cotton fire resistant, antibacterial, water tight, colorfast, and incredibly beautiful. Textiles achieve their beauty only through a complex dying process—the science part of the exhibition. It involves grinding leaves from the Indigofera plant into powder, boiling the powder into a rich liquid, and fermenting it to complete a chemical reaction. After removing the textiles from the vat, they emerge green, but after exposure to air and oxygen in an alchemical reaction they transform into various hues of blue. As the title promises, the exhibition combines art, craft, science, and history to explore indigo’s past and present. It is one among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of Getty’s 2024 PST ART: Art & Science Collide.

Installation View:
Work-Clothes Quilt and Blue Jeans
1940, African American
Collection Mingei International Museum

“Indigo has been worn by kings as a symbol of royal power, and by humble workmen,” —such as Japanese firefighters, African royalty, and cowboys with blue jeans — says Chief curator and Director of Exhibitions Dr. Emily Hanna during a tour of the exhibition. A Japanese firefighter jacket and helmet from about 1860, and a large Royal Display Cloth from Cameroon are included in the show, as well as a workman’s blanket, quilted out of used indigo fabric patches. Two Levi Strauss pairs of blue jeans are shown side by side, one from 1933 colored with synthetic dye, and one brand new model from 2023 made with plant based indigo dye. Indigo is making a come-back. Synthetic dies create large amounts of toxic waste water, while natural indigo is environmentally friendly without any difference in the quality of the color.

Blue Gold strikes a perfect balance between art and science. The stages of planting, processing, fermenting, and mixing the indigo powder in large vats, are shown in various displays. Once the dye is created, the fabric can be decorated with four main techniques:

Adire – a dye resist technique that uses starchy root past to block out areas on fabric before dying

Batik – mostly used in Indonesia, a wax resist method, often applied with elaborate stencils

Ikat – weaving with colored yarn, also Indonesia

Shibori – a Japanese method tying off small wood blocks with strings or rubber bands before dying

Most of the objects are from the Mingei Museum’s permanent collection. Out of the 180 works, originating from 30 countries, only 26 are on loan from other institutions. They are not all objects of art. A slide show on a large monitor shows indigo stained histology slides as seen under a microscope. They look like modern, abstract art.

Temporary Spaces
Porfirio Gutiérrez, 2024, USA, Ca
Courtesy of the Artist

The newest piece is a commission entitled Temporary Spaces by Porfirio Gutiérrez, a Zapotec American textile artist now living in Ventura. He rejuvenated traditional, indigenous indigo dying techniques and motifs to created an immersive multi-panel installation. Each panel consists of a woven rug, dipped and swirled in indigo vats, resulting in large panels resembling clouds, a night sky, or flowing water. Onto these multi-hued wool panels, Gutiérrez needle-felted stylized triangles touching at the tip to create butterfly motifs. The needle-felted triangles have been died separately in lighter or darker indigo shades. Gutiérrez says his temporary spaces signify the migratory journey of monarch butterflies.  But people also have to move in order to save themselves. They create communities, or assemblies like the groupings of stylized butterflies on the panels, as temporary spaces or clusters. The installation creates a flowing and pulsating space of blue that is exciting and calming at the same time. It was my favorite spot in the exhibition.

But one shouldn’t have a favorite child, and there is much breathtaking beauty in this show, balancing the science with a wow effect of color and shapes. The oldest pieces in the exhibition are fabric fragments from Peru and Egypt, going back to the 7th century.

And there is much in between the oldest and newest. A striking Navajo Chiefs Blanket, 3rd phase, from ca. 1890 takes up an entire back wall. It’s bold, red central diamond shape with a directional cross is bordered by white stripes and large indigo triangles. The female Navajo weaver had to import her indigo through the Indigo Trail from mezzo-America, most likely from Guatemala, where the climate allowed indigo cultivation, to New Mexico and Arizona. The red color dye was produced by cochineal, crushed insects living on cacti.

Another wall is covered with Japanese kimonos in various hues and patterns of blue. Sleeping garments, called Yogi worn by brides, and summer kimonos, called Jakata, dazzle in a variety of patterns, and designs. They were created between 1830-1950s

18th Century Merchant Ship. Shelly Jyoti. 2023, India.
Ajrakh printing, dyeing, and needlework on khadi fabric
Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Inder Gopal

            Another wall is dominated by the tapestry of a 18th Century Merchant ship, a creation by contemporary Indian artist Shelly Jhoti. Jhoti collaborated with tenth generation Ajrakh craftsmen using ancient dying, printing, and needlework techniques to create a large-scale European ship floating on a blue indigo ocean carrying a powerful message. The merchant ship tells the tragic back story of Indigo, which used to be a transnational and exploitative commodity. Indian farmers were forced to grow, harvest and process indigo instead of food, so it could be exported by merchant vessels to Europe where it fetched high prices. Historical photos on loan from the Getty show the native workers wading in large vats stirring the dye with large indigo sticks, under the watchful eye of white supervisors. Indigo’s ugly underbelly connected to slavery, forced labor and colonization is not omitted in this beautiful exhibit.

“I deeply appreciate that artists were the keepers of the science of indigo,” says Dr. Hanna, summing up this happy confluence of process, science, textile art and beauty.

Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park
September 14 – March 16, 2025

Images: Photo Credit: Ron Kerner for Mingei International Museum

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