When Leia Lewis saw the movie, Daughters of the Dust, a scene where the hands of a character, blue from using the indigo plant dye, had a deep impact on her.
She describes the moment as a spiritual awakening: “I saw the hands in the film, and an ancestral memory was awakened.”
She describes it as a sensation, “I knew what that was, even though I had never seen it before.”
Lewis, who professionally goes by Iya Oriade Queen Leia Lewis, has an art show titled “INDIGEAUX: Yes, Spirit. I'll Go...” at the Southern University Museum of Art in Shreveport, showcasing her work with Indigo.
It’s a journey more than thirty years in the making, and what Lewis feels is just the start of what will come. As she drove to the opening reception, she got emotional: “I felt more than anything that I had accomplished what my ancestors wanted me to do, which was to tell their story.”
Lewis has a bachelor's in drama and communications and a master’s in arts administration and another in education. She has circled art her whole life, creating it as a child and, as an adult, working closely with it in an administrative way.
After years of studying Indigo, she knew she had found her muse and the time had come for her to make her own art, “I felt like I owed it to myself, and the little girl in me, to give myself the opportunity to create.”
She learned that in Africa, indigo-dyed cloth helped financially empower many African women. She also learned that it was a desirable skill that enslavers would look for to take to America.
Indigo farming was a cornerstone of America’s development and economic foundation and was once the main crop of Louisiana, before cotton and sugar cane, “History reminds us that indigo—the plant that once colored our nation's flag and the blue of denim jeans—is as American as it gets.”
Lewis received a workshop scholarship to study the traditional Yoruba methods of indigo dyeing with a master artist named Gasali Adeyemo. The work produced is on display at the show.
Adeyemo explained how it is sold in Nigeria in traditional markets and purchased for varied purposes including dye for artisans, as a medicinal herb for midwives as well as a purifying herb for traditional spiritual healers.
Lewis was able to use the natural indigo dye-balls made of compressed dry brownish leaves for the first time.
“I am overjoyed to be reclaiming indigo,” said Lewis, “As a contemporary artist, I am renewing ancestral traditions of designing and dyeing cloth to convey narratives about Louisiana's history that emerged when Indigenous, African, and European cultures converged.”
In her show, she pays homage to the Yoruba goddesses with her mixed media collages on canvas including one titled Iya Mapo, known as “The First Indigo Dyer”.
The show also honors the enslaved people of America who produced the dye. She depicts the Middle Passage with faceless people on ships and faceless people in the fields, “Addressing difficult subjects like slavery is essential for a true understanding of our history and for guiding our future.”
Lewis believes that efforts to remove slavery from public school curricula does not benefit students or society, “Teach children in a way that empowers their sense of self, and in a way that helps people to see our connectedness and how important it is that we honor the humanity of one another.”
Lewis will give a guided tour of the exhibit on Thursday, August 29, 2024, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at Southern University Museum of Art located at 610 Texas St, the day before the show ends.
“My journey to reclaim indigo holds sacred meaning for me. It has been a three-decade journey of discovery, learning, and seeking answers, traveling both near and far to uncover truths, and cultivating the courage to express it all through art.”
Learn more about her art on her website https://artbyoriade.com/
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Art show with Indigo at SUMAS connects Leia Lewis to the past
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