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Paper short abstract:

Adire traditional Yoruba textile art involves dyeing and pattern creations, as well as a network of human and non-human agencies, allowing as to think through different epistemological approaches from Yoruba and diasporic knowledge, connecting Africa and Brazil.

Paper long abstract:

We aim to discuss some research questions regarding the Yoruba textile art of dyeing in the production of Adire fabric, based on the field study carried out in Yorubaland in 2023. As well as the participationof Adire artist and researcher, Peju Layiwola, as part of the Meeting of Knowledges around textile art in Cachoeira, organised at Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia in 2022. It is an initiative in Brazilian universities aiming to promote dialogues between traditional and scientific knowledge. Originally, Adire textiles were dyed in indigo from the leaves of the Lonchocarpus Cyanescens plant. Since the 1920s, with synthetic dyes introduction, production and meanings have changed. Adire has always been a way of telling tales, and it continues to be so. The research considers the network of multiple human and non-human actors in the creative processes of textile productions, bringing into the field of art history the dimension of non-human agencies facing the challenges of the context of ecological crisis. We seek to inscribe other dimensions in the history of art, undoing categorizations and separations between art and craft, nature and culture, subject and object through epistemological approaches to Yoruba and diasporic knowledges.Thus, we propose a paradigm shift and an investigation into art history and creative processes that analyze non-human actors and agents in their configuration, including fabric, indigo dyeing, the creation of patterns as creations produced by a complex network of actors - humans, plants, bacteria, substances, the tissue itself, deities and spirits as agents.