Fermented Natural Dye Documentation

Fermented Natural Dye Samples and In-progress Documentation

For the past two years I have been researching and practicing natural dye techniques of the Americas. This information has led me to develop a practice of identifying plants around Baltimore city, experimenting and documenting their ‘dye’/color qualities on fiber and paper. The routine I have created has helped me build relationships with plant-life as well as understanding them as autonomous beings with unique qualities, life cycles and communication. However, these findings also highlight how Baltimore city and other institutions in the United States exploit plant-life in order to further political/social agendas. These agendas include: erasure of Indigenous communities and territories, promoting anti-immigration sentiments/policy, creation of food deserts, dependency on state/private medical services and widening the gap between people and nature. Re-building relationships with plant-life in cities allows for one to be more rooted in land-based practices that can break cycles of food insecurity, free and healthy medicines and the social/cultural isolation that immigrants and people of color face in the U.S.

These samples and research has been conducted on Piscataway Territory (so-called Baltimore City). Specifically, in the Charles Village area (Wyman Park) and Remington areas. The dye-extraction technique I am primarily using and researching is fermentation or 'vat-dye' baths. Plant matter is fermented for 1 to 8 weeks with fibers submerged in the liquid.