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Press Release - Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Indigo: A Blue to Dye For

29 September 2007 to 6 January 2008
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery and Hove Museum & Art Gallery

Indigo: A Blue To Dye For, a survey of the world’s oldest and most distinctive dyestuff, is a major exhibition of art, craft, fashion, and design featuring historical and contemporary indigo-dyed artefacts from around the world.

Believed by many cultures to be charged with unique talismanic properties, indigo is the dyestuff behind one of the world’s ubiquitous fabrics – denim. This spectacular exhibition, shown across two major museums in Brighton & Hove, explores the dye’s use over time and space.

The universality of indigo is demonstrated through an outstanding range of textiles and clothing from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The wide range of decorative techniques includes hand-drawn batiks, stencil designs, paste and wax resist cloths, blue printing, indigo discharge and tie dye, as well as shibori and sashiko.

Indigo: A Blue To Dye For spans indigo’s rich history from burial cloths in Roman Egypt to 16th-18th century domestic textiles and clothing dyed in India and imported to Europe by the East India Company. The historical journey of indigo is traced through the rediscovery of indigo discharge techniques by William Morris for his chintzes, and its part in the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1870s-1880s and the manufacture of synthetic indigo in the late 19th century. The exhibition features one of the earliest pairs of denim jeans.

In addition to historical textiles, Indigo: A Blue To Dye For features the work of many contemporary craftmakers from Britain, Japan, India, Bangladesh and West Africa, illustrating the survival – and adaptation to contemporary fashions – of indigo. Some of the works have been specially commissioned for the show.

The process of indigo dyeing is explored through a display that examines the alchemical process of working with indigo, and includes dye balls, dye samples, botanical drawings and videos of cloth being dyed in different parts of the world. Its mysterious transformations have long been steeped in myth and magic and the show features indigo-dyed cloth with ritualistic and talismanic meanings.

The indigo story has a contemporary resonance through its use in the manufacture of denim, used for the most commonly worn fashion items in the world today. The exhibition features highlights from the story of blue denim, including original garments, advertising materials and movie stills from the Levi Strauss archive. There are examples of denim as used in haute couture, demonstrating how denim is continually re-invented and re-interpreted by both high - and high-street - fashion.

Fine and applied artists have long used indigo. The ‘Blue Art’ section of the exhibition demonstrates its beauty as a medium and inspiration. Japanese artist Hiroyuki Shindo (whose work is held in the permanent collection of many international galleries including MOMA, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago) is exhibiting in the UK for the first time as part of Indigo: A Blue to Dye For. His work features giant indigo balls and wall hangings in a stunning installation. The exhibition also features his contemporary Shihoko Fukumoto and the Palestinian-born Nasser Soumi, who paints in indigo.

Indigo: A Blue to Dye For is an extensive exhibition and is housed in the exhibition galleries at both Brighton Museum and Hove Museum.

Major installations at Brighton Museum include
• the History of Indigo throughout the world;
• Alchemy and the transformation of indigo from plant to dyestuff;
• Decorative Techniques Worldwide and the wide-ranging uses of indigo by different cultures;
• Fashion from Levi's blue jeans to iconic statements by Jean Paul Gaultier; and
• Blue Art, with a spectacular textile installation by leading Japanese artist Hiroyuki Shindo.

Highlights of the show at Hove Museum include
• indigo in British craft from the 18th century to the present day;
• Myth, Medicine and Ritual, highlighting beliefs in the transformative properties of indigo; and
• Workwear, including a denim prison uniform and a Japanese firefighter's outfit.
Also at Hove Museum, a separate display of indigo-based work by Jenny Balfour-Paul and Lucy Goffin complements the main exhibition.

Admission at both museums is free. The exhibition continues until 6 January 2008.

Indigo: A Blue To Dye For is A Whitworth Art Gallery Touring Exhibition.

Ends
Issued 12 June 2007

Images:

1 Indigo: A Blue to Dye for Promotional image, 2006. Exhibition title, indigo denim jeans

2 Indigo: dyer's hand holding dyed and undyed yarns Tunisia 1995 © Jenny Balfour-Paul

3 Indigo Blue Art: Hiroyuki Shindo Shindigo Space 07, detail, 2006 ‘Shindigo shibori’-dyed cotton and hemp and Shindigo balls (polystyrene wrapped with hemp and dip-dyed) Courtesy of the artist. Photo credit Joel Chester Fildes

COPYRIGHT RESERVED
NO CROPPING/NO CUT OUTS/NO SUPERIMPOSING/NO BLEEDING
These images may only be reproduced in connection with media coverage of the Indigo exhibition. All images must be properly credited. Works can be reproduced in press materials, for review and criticism of the exhibition, as long as the proper credit line is given.

Information for editors

Indigo: A Blue to Dye For is curated by Dr Jennifer Harris, Curator of Textiles at The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, with consultative input by leading textile authority Dr Jenny Balfour-Paul.

Dr Jennifer Harris‘s recent publications include Art Textiles of the World, Great Britain, Vol. 2 (published by Telos).

Dr Jenny Balfour-Paul, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, is an independent writer and lecturer. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Jenny Balfour-Paul’s Indigo (British Museum Press, 1998) has been reprinted to coincide with the exhibition and is available to buy from Brighton Museum and Hove Museum shops.

This major touring exhibition is initiated by the Whitworth Art Gallery. The Whitworth Art Gallery is part of The University of Manchester and has been awarded Designated status by the UK Government.

Symposium
Indigo: global perspectives

A one-day symposium at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Saturday 13 October 2007
To coincide with the exhibition Indigo: A Blue to Dye For, this one-day symposium brings together a range of specialists to explore the uses of indigo in world textile traditions, past and present.
Speakers include Jenny Balfour-Paul (authority on indigo; author of Indigo, British Museum Press, 1998), Dominique Cardon (specialist in archaeological textiles and natural dyes; author of Natural Dyes, Archetype Books, 2007), Noorjehan Bilgrami (textile historian and artist, Pakistan), Hiroyuki Shindo (textile artist, Japan) and Philip John (Professor of Plant Biochemistry, University of Reading).
Tickets: £40 (£20 concessions) including tea and coffee
To book, please send a cheque made payable to ‘Brighton & Hove City Council’ to Paula Wrightson, Museums Learning Officer, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, 4-5 Pavilion Buildings
Brighton, BN1 1EE, 01273 292864 paula.wrightson@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Other lectures, gallery talks and workshops accompany the exhibition.

Indigo: A Blue to Dye For is presented by Brighton & Hove Museums. It is sponsored by The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England, The Manchester Airports Group, The Japan Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, The University of Manchester Whitworth Art Gallery, The James Green Centre for World Art and Brighton & Hove City Council.

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Entrance in Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton BN1 1EE
01273 290900
www.virtualmuseum.info
Open Tuesday 10am-7pm, Wednesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 2-5pm
Closed Monday (except public holidays 10am-5pm); 23-26 December, 31 December, 1 January
Free admission
Wheelchair accessible, wheelchairs available, accessible toilet, baby changing facilities, passenger lift
Gift shop, café

Hove Museum & Art Gallery
19 New Church Road, Hove BN3 4AB
01273 290200
www.virtualmuseum.info
Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 2-5pm
Closed Monday (including public holidays); 23-26 December, 31 December, 1 January
Free admission
Fully accessible
Café, shop

Press enquiries:
Martin Ellis, Marketing and Audience Development 01273 292817 museums.marketing@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Telephone (01273) 290900 Fax (01273) 292871
Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove City Council BN1 1EE