Cloth with Proverbial Text

20th century

Indigo is a natural dye that sometimes suggests the hues of a midnight sky, shadows of dusk and dawn, as well as a melancholy mood. In Nigeria, plain cotton shirting began arriving from England in the early 20th century. It was disregarded until indigo dyers began making the cotton into canvases by using feathers or stencils with cassava paste. In order to achieve the deepest blue-black, the cloth would be dipped repeatedly in a dye vat. One cloth quotes from the proverb, Atari Ajanaku Kinse Eru Omode:"The head of an elephant is no load for a child."

Cotton cloth, factory woven plain weave, paste resist (adire eleko) with indigo dye

83 11/16 x 72 5/8 in. (212.5 x 184.5 cm)

Gift of the Christensen Fund

2001.981

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Indigo, May 9 - Oct. 19, 2003.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Mood Indigo: Textiles from Around the World, Apr. 9 - Oct. 9, 2016.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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