Unfolding the Sarong: Batik Workshop

This workshop engages with Southeast Asian sarongs as vessels for ancestral memory and cultural history. Drawing on their recent work, The Fingers Pulling The Thread (2024), artist Alaya Ang will take us through the forms and patterns of sarongs and Peranakan traditions to consider how gender, storytelling and resistance are explored through cloth. Sarongs invite us to explore gender beyond a binary as they carry distinct cultural and symbolic meanings across Southeast Asia, allowing for diverse gender expressions. The Bugis people of Sulawesi, for example, recognise five genders, and sarong styles shift accordingly; in performance traditions such as Wayang Peranakan, a Malay theatre form, the sarong moves between masculinity and femininity depending on how it is worn. Participants will learn about batik, a wax-resist dyeing technique, and get to use canting, a traditional pen-like tool to create their batik tulis (hand-drawn batik), developing individual motifs to inscribe personal and collective narratives onto cloth.

You are encouraged to bring a piece of cloth that holds personal or familial significance for this workshop.

This events programme is for young people aged 18–24 years old. While these workshops are intended for this age group, we are keen to be inclusive, and if you feel it would be particularly beneficial for you to attend, please contact our Learning Programme Manager, Rachel Prosser at [email protected].

All making supplies are provided free of charge and workshops are in-person only. All workshops are wheelchair accessible.

Spaces at the workshops are limited to create intimate discussion and instruction during hands-on sessions.

To find about more about the programme and other events see below.

Image Credit: The Fingers Pulling The Thread, 2024. Photo courtesy of Alaya Ang.