On the occasion of Candice Lin’s Pigs and Poison exhibition, I joined Pōneke-based artist Angela Kilford (Te Whanau A Kai, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu) at the Govett-Brewster in Taranaki to demonstrate the processes of natural pigment dye making.
The materials used in the demonstration included indigo, colonising plants like gorse, and native plants such as wharariki. These materials resonated with Lin’s use of tinctures and pigments within her paintings. The 25 attendees had the opportunity to engage with the dye process through making a small sample, applying methods of shibori such as kumo, mokumenui and tesuji.
