Laura C Wright
Local Color
Sheele's Green, 2025
cotton dyed with local plants and Duwwamish River water, vintage life jackets
Eighty years before Carl Perkins discovered aniline mauve, the first synthetic dye that launched a retreat from the natural in the textile industry, William Scheele realized that copper arsenic created a desirable shade of green. This color, discovered in
1775, excited textile consumers with the option for a color surprisingly difficult to replicate in natural dyeing and its’ popularity meant that everything from dresses to wall paper were utilizing Scheele’s Green. It did not take long for the arsenic content of this color to affect the lives whom it literally touched and, despite no laws or warnings of its danger, it finally fell out of favor.*
Developments in the textile industry is the precursor to most natural and inorganic technology and the shift away from organic manufacturing has contributed to the destruction of many waterways. Although the arsenic in the Duwamish River is not a result of the textile industry, I collected water at low tide to see if using arsenic laced water would have an effect on natural dye. It should also be noted that the plants used for this project were collected in the Duwamish Valley and potentially uptake (especially nettle) other heavy metals that may contribute to dyeing.
Co-opting pollution in natural dyeing to mimic some of the more industrialized textile processes is an ongoing project to bring to light the environmental issues present in this supposedly environmentally conscious city. Since I only have a dye studio in Georgetown and everything is coated in pollution (not kidding or exaggerating) there is no control group for this experiment.
Collecting Duwamish River water at low tide.
*The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair, Penguin Books 2017. Pg 224-226
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Birch House
Cotton, Silk Gauze, Birch Bark Dye (different mordants on alternating stripes)
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Birch Axe
Silk Gauze, Birch Bark Dye, Axes & Hatchets
This is a replica of a part of my house where a birch tree stands. A majority of this tree had to be cut down due to a birch borer beetle infestation after many attempts to preserve it through infusions and amputations. I have lived with this tree for over a quarter of a century and appreciate how it kept my house cool, cleaned the air and reduced airplane noise, and filtered some of the lead from the small planes exhaust out of the soil. It was also a great listener and witness of my young to middle aged adult years.
With rising temperatures, more birch trees are succumbing to birch borer beetle infestation. With some of the lowest tree canopy numbers in the city, and the worst air quality, the Duwamish Valley cannot afford to lose these trees but every hot summer a few more die.
Birch House
Cotton, Silk Gauze, Birch Bark Dye (different mordants on alternating stripes)
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RCW 14.08.030
Kozo Paper, Wooden Dowels, Air Filter Fabric, Birch Paint, Nettle Paint, & Sunflower Paint
The Duwamish Valley has the “highest concentration of diesel and benzene particles in the air in the entire city. In addition, the Duwamish Valley contains the most polluted waste sites and the Toxic Emissions Inventory sites included in Seattle neighborhoods.”* Most residents here have some kind of in-home air filtration system, the most popular being the DIY box fan with a hardware store furnace filter. I have a few of these and in the summer it is amazing how quickly they turn grey. For a long time, I have wanted to create some kind of protest kite after seeing the sign at Ruby Chow Park that prohibits kite flying. I finally figured that just sharing these dirty filters dressed up with block prints using pigment from hyperaccumulator plants (sunflower, nettle, and birch) would be a good start.
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Duwamish Bend Housing Projects (DBHP)
Silk, Dye from Invasive Plants Harvested in Georgetown, Wax, Thread, Paracord
DBHP was conceived in 2017 in response to Seattle’s growing housing crisis. The original project plan was to create a large camouflage map of the DBHP, worker subsidized housing built for people working at Boeing during World War II. This camouflage would be sited at a large parking lot at the intersection of Michigan and Marginal Way and photographed by drone in connection with a previous work I completed about the Manzanar internment camp. Due to changing drone laws (being near King County/ Boeing Airport creates fluctuating limitations on drone usage) and the development of the parking lot for Amazon distribution, the project changed.
Although this work now lives as a protest in a gallery, the message has hopefully not changed or diminished. This is still a call to our Mayor and City Council to be inspired/ humbled by what Seattle was able to do in 1943 and acknowledge that affordable housing for the working class can and must be built.