Open to all beginners, learn how to print using traditional Indian carved wood blocks to create your own unique works of art. Led by artist Sunaina Bhalla, the workshop will begin with a brief history on wood block printing traditions in India and China, with demonstrations of different methods of block printing. Choose from over 100 motifs to practice on paper, and bring home your own tote bag with your printed designs. Participants are encouraged to bring additional materials and cloths from home they would like to print on!

Workshop Leader
Sunaina is a contemporary artist of Indian origin, living in Singapore. Educated in India, she moved to Tokyo in the late 90’s and has spent the last two decades in various parts of North and South Asia. Having completed her formal education as a textile designer specializing in print, she chose to pursue an immersive education in the traditional art form of Nihonga in Japan, where she spent 5 years studying under Suiko Ohta-sensei of the Kyoshin-Do school. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts degree from Goldsmiths University, London and Lasalle College of the Arts, where her thesis topic was ‘The Gesture and the Ritual of Pain’.

Her work revolves around the repetitive and ritualistic nature of gestures and their traces. She explores the transformative effects of the deliberate infliction of pain on the human body during the curative process of alleviating disease and decay. By using materials analogous to the fragile nature of the body, juxtaposed with photography, fabric and embroidery, she examines the passage of time and the mark making that documents this process. Some of the materials used are blood test strips, gauze bandages and suture needles.

Using her personal experiences as a Breast cancer survivor and a caregiver to her daughter with Type 1 Diabetes, she documents the journey of trauma and relief through gestures as a visual language. Sunaina has exhibited in Japan, India, Singapore, Europe and the Middle East. Her works are in the permanent collections of the ESSL Museum, Vienna and Mumbai Airports Authority, India, and in various private collections globally. She also runs wood block printing workshops regularly in Singapore, Myanmar, Indonesia, USA and Australia.