BEYOND THE SKY AND EARTH

INDIGO AND MINERAL MUD DYE

Natural Dyeing Workshop with Aboubakar Fofana and Karin Altmann

Aboubakar Fofana is a multidisciplinary artist and designer from Mali, known for his years of effort to preserve and reinvigorate West African textile and indigo dyeing techniques. His raw materials come from the natural world, and his artistic practises revolve around the cycles of nature, the themes of birth, decay and change, and the impermanence of these materials.

Aboubakar Fofana is Artist-in-Residence at the University of Applied Arts Vienna as well as Visiting Professor at the Department of Art and Communication Practices during winter semester 2020/21.

Together with Karin Altmann, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Textiles - Free, Applied and Experimental Art and Design, he will offer an intensive workshop, which is focused on dyeing with natural indigo and painting with mineral mud dye. The workshop explains not only the chemistry of indigo, the principles of indigo dyeing and the preparation of the mud and the mordant, but also stitching techniques, and the adequate choice, preparation and post-treatment of the textiles.

The aim of the workshop is to acquire basic artistic and technical knowledge and to develop an experimental process that leads from a sensual, material-centered activity and an experimental basis to creative practice and individual artistic expression. After familiarizing themselves with the principles of indigo and mud dyeing, the students will work on a personal project with the support of Aboubakar and Karin.

The workshop is limited to 12 students and open to beginners.

Regular attendance and active participation required on all five days!

Presentation of the work results at the end of the semester and documentation (submission in digital form).

The language of instruction is English and German.

limited to 12 people