Mood Indigo

Like Pluto, deposed from its perch as the ninth planet, indigo is no longer considered a color of the rainbow. The rainbow continues to shine, blithely unaware of the downgrade, and the solar system revolves just as before. But there’s an interval between blue and violet that no longer has a proper label. The modern eye seems unwilling or unable to identify indigo, in spite of the fact that – or perhaps because – it’s the oldest known dyestuff. This ethereal, unique, and elusive color is derived from a green plant, conjuring up a sense of the uncanny. Lovecraft wrote of a “color out of space,” shining spectrographic bands unknown to scientists. Indigo, indeed, has long held a domain all its own, coveted by Tuareg traders, Yoruba weavers, Korean tailors, Afghan shepherds, and lordlings of Rajasthan. From September, it’s the star of an exhibition titled Blue Gold, at San Diego’s Mingei.