Haint Blue Waves

Haint Blue Waves Triptych is a sustainable sculpture that honors Black alchemy,
legacy, and folklore. A collage of various upcycled textiles ranging from cotton,
denim, and silk sourced from thrift stores, FabScarps, and Materials for the Arts.
Hand-dyed with Indigo to create an array of hues that resemble water. This
historical pigment carried significant meaning for centuries before it became an
American cash crop. Southern folklore says that indigo was better known as
"haint blue” - “had the power to protect enslaved Africans and their
descendants from evil spirits. The color was said to trick haints into believing that
they’ve stumbled into water (which they cannot cross).

Upcycled poly-plastic garment bags encase the quilted indigo textiles to create
a stained glass effect that reflects “bottle trees” a continuation of the Haint Blue
folklore “sky (which will lead spirits farther from the victims they seek). Blue glass
bottles were hung in trees to trap the malevolent marauders”. Poly-plastic would
otherwise wind up in landfills and the ocean, causing detriment to the earth's
ecosystem and is a leading contributor to climate change. The frame of the
sculpture is lined in cowrie shells which harness spiritual power, and symbolic
meaning that links this work to black folklore themes around water. The post of
the sculpture is anchored in oyster shells to pay homage to the northern Black
oyster legacy and sourced from the Billion Oyster Project on Governors Island.
This work is a call of urgency to protect our beautiful earth, the ubiquity of toxic
materials over natural materials, and protest black erasure and encourage
visual, oral, and written narratives of black mythology and legacy in America.