James Lu

Beyond the River interrogates the central themes of universality and how the supplementation of traditional indigo dye by synthetic alternatives has transformed our human relationship to natural indigo and the environment. By doing so, we forego our own historic and cultural ties to global communities. The art of storytelling, a cultural identity-making practice, acts as a bridge to remedy the broken ties to global communities. Storytelling can also be conducted through oral, written, and materialistic methodologies, such as traditional practices of natural indigo dyeing. Lu reimagines the fable The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid—the Chinese creation myth of the Milky Way—in a physical space through the medium of natural indigo dye. Beyond the River celebrates the culturally global historicity of indigo while welcoming others to share in his own rediscovery of natural indigo dyeing.

BIO

James Lu (he/him) is an NYU Gallatin student born and raised in New York City. Lu has lived abroad in Canada, China, and Australia, and developed his concentration, Trans-Cardinal Indigo Dyeing as Culture and Politics, as a culmination of his cross-cultural experiences. From his work in the New York State government as a public servant, Lu has become intimately conscious of imagined and tangible boundaries delineating communities. He bases his personal and professional works on these principles of identity and space, particularly as it concerns his questioning of what it means to be Asian American.