Addoley Dzegede
Veiled Prophet/Profit, 2018, batik and screen printed reactive dye on cotton, 70 x 80 in. Photo by Dusty Kessler. Addoley Dzegede: Ballast, installation view. Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis.
“It’s a constant negotiation between colors I like and what I’m referencing.”
Addoley Dzegede is an artist living and working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and also in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA), where she is a Tulsa Artist Fellow.
Addoley’s approach to color is unabashed and she has a mixed-media approach to printmaking. Her patterned, nuanced, referential work is created with screen printing, batik, casting, dyeing, weaving, sewing, netting, carving, video, assemblage, book arts and ceramics.
Currently Addoley is working on an oral history project and a series of batik portraits. Ask Addoley + Anna, an advice podcast with Anna Ihle, has new seasons debuting in France and in Latvia.
What cultural aspects and other associations toward color are built into your work?
I choose to use bold colors combinations that are often found in Dutch wax print fabrics which are extremely popular in West Africa. I also reference the history of indigo.
Sometimes I use color symbolically, for example, using the colors of a place's flag or choosing a dye based on its name. Sometimes, though, I can't bring myself to use certain color combinations like a lime green and purple. It's a constant negotiation between colors I like and what I'm referencing.
Give or Take, 2019, screen printed reactive dye on linen, metallic gold paint, 48 x 32 in.
Mourning/Morning, 2018, batik and screen printed reactive dye on cotton, 74 x 67 in. Photo by Dusty Kessler.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
Sometimes I try to match a color quite precisely, but often I change my mind at the last minute and choose another color that just feels right to me.
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
Screen printing allows me to plan a design first and choose the colors later. I have yet to create the same pattern in different color ways, which is something I'd like to start doing, and screen printing would make that very easy.
What can printmaking ink achieve regarding color in your work that no other material can?
I use dyes, and I love the way they become an indelible part of the fabric without changing the way it drapes or feels.
If you could eat a color for dinner, what color would you choose and how would it taste?
Any kind of turquoise. It would be salty, sweet and crispy...a kind of candy bar.
Current(cy), 2018, batik, dye, screen printed textile ink on cotton, Dutch wax print, rope, 33 x 11 ft area. Photo by Dusty Kessler.