Indigo Pavilion

As an installation in Jeremy Deller and the National Gallery's Triumph of Art, ‘The Indigo Pavilion’ investigates the contested histories of Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery through the story of indigo, the valuable blue dye that played a significant role in British colonial history. While serving as a major export crop in the British colonies and a key source of revenue for the East India Company in India, indigo cultivation often came at the expense of local populations through forced labor, debt peonage, and land dispossession. Closely entwined into this uncomfortable reality is the rich catalyst that indigo has been to the tradition of textile craft around the world. ‘The Indigo Pavilion’ acknowledges the difficult place of indigo in the history of colonialism while celebrating its craft, specifically Adire, Ajrak/Kalamkari, Katazome and Nayin (indigo block or stencil printing traditions from Nigeria, India, Japan and China respectively, as personally represented by the participating students). Displaying patterns interpreted from traditional motifs found in the different indigo crafts, the printed fabric is hung on a gently curved timber structure, enabling the fabric as procession device during the Whitehall parade, and then transforming into a shade structure on Trafalgar Square. The timber structure itself is constructed from a hybrid of digital fabrication and traditional timber hand craft using a traditional steam bending technique, using locally sourced ash from fallen urban trees. (London based timber supplier, Fallen & Felled).