Dine Weaver Venancio Aragon Dyes Wool With Kool-Aid

"From researching historic twill patterns in museum collections to dyeing wool with Kool-Aid, Diné (Navajo) weaver and instructor Venancio Aragón interlocks research and experimentation to expand the visual and technical vocabularies of Diné weaving. Working on the Diné upright loom, Aragón is part of a generation of Diné weavers who reinterpret ancestral knowledge through experimentation, carrying the medium forward on their own terms. As he stated in our interview with him, "I am not a purist.""

"Based in Farmington, New Mexico, Aragón is trained in cultural anthropology and Native American and Indigenous studies, currently teaching at Diné College, the Navajo Nation's tribal college. Before transitioning to full-time weaving and teaching, Aragón worked as an interpretive park ranger at the Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, and Petroglyph National Monuments, where he led tours and developed public education initiatives. He was born to the Tó'aheedlíinii (The Water Flow Together People) clan and born for the Naakaii (Mexican people)."

Venancio Aragón is a Diné (Navajo) weaver and instructor based in Farmington, New Mexico, who combines archival research with studio experimentation to expand Diné weaving vocabularies. He studies historic twill patterns and unconventional textiles in museum collections and dyes wool with unconventional materials like Kool-Aid. Trained in cultural anthropology and Native American and Indigenous studies, he teaches at Diné College and previously worked as an interpretive park ranger at several national monuments. He draws on clan identities—Tó'aheedlíinii and Naakaii—and family lineage in his practice. He reevaluates trading-post-era standardizations shaped by White traders and reimagines pre-trading-post weaving techniques to recover creative autonomy.

Read at Hyperallergic