Carving it out

The love of slow living conveyed through traditional crafts can also be seen in the reception garnered from Gallery & Co’s woodblock printing workshops.

Earlier this year, the F&B and retail concept housed within National Gallery Singapore, in conjunction with the launch of its exclusive capsule collection with Matter Prints, flew down artisan Khushiram Pandey — a fifth-generation block printer from India — to hold workshops on traditional Indian woodblock printing.

The artist had successfully merged new forms of design and techniques into a heritage craft passed down from his family over time in his hometown, Sanganer, one of the key towns in Rajasthan renowned for their extensive cultural histories in the craft of woodblock printing.

The workshop received a strong response, catching the organisers by surprise.

“It was beyond our expectations, especially since it was the first workshop that we conducted at Gallery & Co. The first two sessions (10 participants each) sold out within days, and we had to add on two more sessions,” shared Cheryl Ho, spokesperson and marketing manager for Gallery & Co.

Participants were a mix of both Singapore and expatriate professionals between 25 and 35 years old and across both genders. Through the workshop, they experienced the craft of woodblock printing through experimenting, mixing and matching their own motifs from traditional Indian woodblocks, and learning the various techniques behind it, such as resist print and direct print. They also got to create woodblock-printed cotton silk scarves of their own.

On the increasing appeal of slow-living, Ho said there has been growing interest in the DIY movement globally for several years now, “and Singaporeans have definitely caught on to that as well. The increased appreciation of traditional crafts is a natural extension of that”.

She added: “We are inundated by the noise on social media as well as a never-ending barrage of text messages and emails on a daily basis, and many people are reacting to the demands of this fast urban lifestyle by doing the opposite. Hence, the appeal of ‘slow’ activities like the traditional crafts, where one is able to switch off from the digital world and focus their attention on creating something tangible.”