Intriguing indigo

Work by Davana Robedee in her show “As Above, So Below,’’ at 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, N.H., Sept. 8-Nov. 12

She says:

“Indigo dye is an intriguing substance. It strikes a balance between precise science and magical experience. Long before its scientific understanding, indigo was used all over the world for its color, but it was also revered for its magical transformation from green to blue in the dye process. Before knowing that on the molecular level, indigo was bonding with oxygen, it was described as ‘breathing’ as if it were a living entity. Through growing and dyeing with it, I find a place to hold both the spiritual and the scientific. Its place in my practice is symbolic and functional. The same is true for hand-stitched resist shibori as a method of making marks on fabric. It slows down my experience of time and the imagery references my parasomnia hallucinations. It gives rise to two narratives- that I slow down time and a create a magical transformation, or that I bind fabric and use a chemical reaction to create a pattern. Through this I question- are these arcane symbols from a world beyond consciousness, or simply a misfiring of the brain?’’

Portsmouth waterfront in 1917