REAP WHAT YOU SEW
Ivivia Olenick has re-contextualized historical narratives, focusing on interplays of race, gender, labor, and economics by using the simple INDIGO PLANT. Using textile processes being beading, embroidery, crochet and natural dying she makes visible through text and illustration, the slave labor through which the colonial American economy developed. It was the South Carolina plantation in the mid 1700’s that made indigo a cash crop. It was Eliza Lucas Pinckney, plantation manager and businesswoman who is responsible for indigo’s successful trade with England. This project will start with seed in Brooklyn backyard gardens, and once harvested the arduous process of extracting the color from the plant will be undertaken. The children in the neighborhood will then be invited to dye clothing and Ms. Olenick will also help them embellish what they have dyed as a special keepsake.
