Equal parts chemical synergy and ancestral alchemy, indigo dyeing is central to the practices of many artists with work in “Touching Roots,” including Ifé Franklin and Stephen Hamilton. The advisors and curator chose the wall color to evoke indigo blue and the dyeing process Yorùbá women in Nigeria use to make adire cloth. All these colors are used with intention. In the exhibition, you’ll see deep blues painted on the walls in the art, you’ll see bright reds, vibrant greens, and shimmering purples. But colors can also guide us all through our shared ancestry, nudge us toward social change, and unite rather than divide us. In shows about Black art, color is typically examined in the context of skin tone, which can be a source of division because of colorism. Kyrah Malika Daniels, Stephen Hamilton, and Napoleon Jones-Henderson, I noticed how color is a powerful thread throughout the exhibition.
The song also includes subliminal messages, just like several artworks in “Touching Roots” contain a formal element that functions in the same way: color. While working as an advisor on the exhibition “Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas,” I often thought of Kendrick Lamar’s 2011 song “HiiiPoWeR.” Lamar describes Pan-Africanism for a new generation through lyrics that respond to historical references and introduce wordplay. “I be off the slave ship building pyramids and writing my own hieroglyphs.” Conservation and Collections Management.
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