Bethnal Green-based artist F. Zeeshan Choudhury unveils her new visual language to record local folklores, expressed through a sari printed with bespoke woodblock stamps.

When language is so controlled by those in power, how can people on the margins tell their stories in ways that honour their experiences? This is the central question that Made in Bethnal Green seeks to answer.

As part of the Forming New Folklores project, Bethnal Green artist F. Zeeshan Choudhury produced four storytelling workshops in The Create Place, aimed at capturing the folklore of local queer and disabled communities. These stories were recorded in letters, poems, collage and crafted shrines.

As an alternative to writing or recording, Choudhury then co-designed designed a set of woodblock stamps with Bengali artist Rasel Rana. The stamps, which feature a diverse set of forms, form a kind of visual ‘alphabet’ which can be used to tell and re-tell stories through the art of chappa (woodblock printing on saris).

Choudhury models the use of the Chappa as a means of visual storytelling on a hand-printed sari, and invites the audience to connect and interpret this story as a way to have it live on: forming a new folklore.

Bethnal Green plays a central role in the story of the exhibition itself. Choudhury lives five minutes from St. Margaret’s House, which houses both The Create Place and The Gallery Café. The exhibition invites the audience to consider their own methods and practices in sharing their own stories.

IG : @fzeeshanchoudhury

Venue: The Gallery Cafe at St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL (Plan your visit)

Access: step-free entry to The Gallery Cafe is at the rear, through the garden. It is accessible through the gate located two doors to the left of the cafe’s main entrance. If you need access to an accessible toilet, please let us know so we can arrange that.

Date: Tuesday 17th June - Monday 21st July

Time: 8.30am-5.00pm