Experiment with fresh leaf indigo dye and play with pattern making on silk scarves using simple shibori resists.
Join us for a collective practice to reconnect with nature through the living colour of Japanese indigo. Through a hands-on and community-based workshop, artist, and craft researcher, Hitoko Okada, will share their cultural, medicinal, and ancestral knowledge of Japanese indigo through storytelling. We will harvest indigo leaves from the Queen's Square Artist Garden and play with pattern making on silk scarves using simple shibori resists. The fresh leaf dye will offer a bright, living turquoise blue. The intention of this program is to reconnect to plants and to consider ancient Japanese approaches to relating to plants, their colour and cloth. This workshop does not focus on technique. All materials provided.
About the Artist: Hitoko Okada is a queer, Nikkei, interdisciplinary artist, craft researcher and arts facilitator. They are currently based in Hamilton, Ontario. Okada has been researching Japanese indigo, taima, shifu and other Japanese folk bast fibre textiles for several years. Their artistic and fashion practice explores the colonial histories, geo-politics and labour of the global fashion supply chain, and the impacts of these histories on Japanese heritage textile folk crafts.
The artist would like to acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Hamilton for their generous support of the project.
This workshop is offered in conjunction with Hitoko Okada's upcoming solo exhibition at Cambridge Art Galleries, Queen's Square.
Accessibility
If you require an accessibility accommodation for this program or event, please tell us how we can meet your needs as soon as possible so arrangements can be organized. If you require a sign language interpreter, please let us know at least two-weeks (10 working weekdays) before the program date.
If you are attending a registered program with a support person, please add your support worker as a guest when you sign up.
COST: Free
AGE GROUP: | Cambridge Art Galleries | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Programs + Workshops |
The Queen's Square location is a public library and art gallery. This location features a grand piano for music performances, multiple study and reading areas, and a large children’s department.
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