Ai: Rain Drawings in Natural Indigo

Miya Ando explores rain, language, and time through drawings made with natural indigo and silver powder on handmade paper, informed by traditional Japanese material history. About Indigo (J: ai 藍) has been used in Japan for art and textiles since the sixth century CE. In Buddhist sutra manuscripts, sacred texts were written in shimmering gold and silver on deep indigo-dyed paper. Miya Ando draws upon this material history through her use of natural indigo and silver, bringing these traditional materials into a contemporary meditation on rain, language, and time. During the COVID pandemic, Ando began exploring the myriad words used to describe rain in Japanese poetry and literature, a project that culminated in Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words, published by The MIT Press in 2025. Using natural indigo, graphite, and pure silver powder on handmade paper, Ando produced drawings that evoke each of these words. Fourteen large-scale drawings selected from the compendium of Water of the Sky are on view here, looking back on Japanese traditions to preserve a language of rain for the future. Also on view are 200 drawings from 498 Aspects of the Rainy Moon, a related series that extends Ando's exploration of Japanese rain language through the conjunction of rain, moonlight, and season. This exhibition was organized for The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, by Michael VanHartingsveldt. All art generously loaned by Miya Ando. Read more Toggle Drawing Mixed media