Growing dye plants and gardening are integral to their practice. Each spring Chhan plants a Japanese variety of indigo called Persicaria tinctoria from hand-germinated seed in their family’s garden patch. After coaxing color from the harvested plants, the remnants are composted and returned to the soil, thus completing a circular process from seed to dye. Other repurposed organic materials, such as avocado pits and kitchen scraps, are also used to create textile dye.

In Returning, Chhan re-explores book arts and artists books, from where their love for natural dyes and textiles stems. Originally trained in print and book arts, Chhan’s autodidactic textile work is inflected with the visual language of printmaking. Using a variety of techniques such as block printing, katazome rice paste resists, and shibori dyeing, this installation assembles a selection of letterpress prints, monotypes, cyanotypes, textiles, clothing, artists books, and dried plants to draw us into a dreamy world of print and color.

This Annex exhibition was curated by Wendy Yao as part of the Ooga Booga Bookshelf Residency at ICA LA.