This short film documents artist Shelly Jyoti’s process of working with master ajrakh craftsmen in Ajrakhpur, Bhuj, Gujarat to make new textile works for her 2023 exhibition Indigo: The Blue Gold at the South Asia Institute in Chicago, IL. The exhibition looks at indigo’s long history from several perspectives, including global trade, forced labor, slavery, and indentured labor, migration, and colonization in terms of India’s colonial history and uses recurring iconographic symbols of Gandhi’s spinning wheel, indigo plants, globes, and ships to tell the story of indigo.
The Making of “Indigo: The Blue Gold,” 2023 Video (6.35 min)
