2 years ago
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Posted On: December 14th 2024, 10:17 pm
Dyeing means to change colors.
People every now and then have asked me what the African-themed pattern means in acknowledging the former Chrystie St. African Burial Ground adjacent to the M’finda Kalunga @mkgarden_ in the Lower East Side. The fence pattern is a wayfinding visual language referencing African and Indigenous textile patterns to provide a sense of identity to the site and it’s unknown history. The mesh material lined with lighting softens the steel framing and illuminates the site. This combination also makes the pattern feel apart of the existing spatial fabric, as if this memorial was always there opposed to a stand alone object. The dots accent the pattern but are also tombstones of the roughly 400 names only found and registered from the original burial ground.
I particularly referenced the “adire” cloth or fabric for it’s “tie dye” nature and universal connection to other countries. Adiré is a type of indigo-dyed cloth practiced in the Yoruba region of Nigeria, as well as other Western African countries. However, multiple cultures globally have practiced similar dyeing methods for cloth and attire including “shibori” in Japan, “zha ran” in China, “Batik” in Indonesia, etc. Considering that the garden is connected to an Asian senior community center that hosts programming in the garden and is situated within a Chinatown context, I thought about a universal but recognizable language that characterizes the overlap of Black and Indigenous Lower East Side history with present day residents. The visual language ties both these diverse narratives with the garden as the colored, dynamic fabric background itself. In order to shift the perception of burial grounds from death to shared cultural practice, my aim was to outline and highlight this transformation of place and it’s inhabitance but also unearth the constant fabric that remains.
Dyeing means to change colors..
-Oni, space doula
Thankful to the support of @_fabnyc @beamcenter @buro_happold @laundromat_proj
People every now and then have asked me what the African-themed pattern means in acknowledging the former Chrystie St. African Burial Ground adjacent to the M’finda Kalunga @mkgarden_ in the Lower East Side. The fence pattern is a wayfinding visual language referencing African and Indigenous textile patterns to provide a sense of identity to the site and it’s unknown history. The mesh material lined with lighting softens the steel framing and illuminates the site. This combination also makes the pattern feel apart of the existing spatial fabric, as if this memorial was always there opposed to a stand alone object. The dots accent the pattern but are also tombstones of the roughly 400 names only found and registered from the original burial ground.
I particularly referenced the “adire” cloth or fabric for it’s “tie dye” nature and universal connection to other countries. Adiré is a type of indigo-dyed cloth practiced in the Yoruba region of Nigeria, as well as other Western African countries. However, multiple cultures globally have practiced similar dyeing methods for cloth and attire including “shibori” in Japan, “zha ran” in China, “Batik” in Indonesia, etc. Considering that the garden is connected to an Asian senior community center that hosts programming in the garden and is situated within a Chinatown context, I thought about a universal but recognizable language that characterizes the overlap of Black and Indigenous Lower East Side history with present day residents. The visual language ties both these diverse narratives with the garden as the colored, dynamic fabric background itself. In order to shift the perception of burial grounds from death to shared cultural practice, my aim was to outline and highlight this transformation of place and it’s inhabitance but also unearth the constant fabric that remains.
Dyeing means to change colors..
-Oni, space doula
Thankful to the support of @_fabnyc @beamcenter @buro_happold @laundromat_proj
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