Workshops + Exhibitions

Handmade Stories

From a rural setting in central Laos, this collaborative project combined local culture, craftsmanship and the power of the imagination. The first workshop in the series was developed with the Japanese educational Atelier Loghouse and involved over 100 students who experimented with materials unfamiliar to them, such as gouache, while simultaneously using their existing skills and aesthetic sense to create artistic works.

Spanning over several years, the workshop series evolved toward an informal partnership with NOMA t.d., a Japanese textile design company based in Tokyo. Fabrics were used as novel materials for the workshop participants, including young Hmong women who saw opportunities to develop new products based on their embroidery skills. Some of their new creations were later showcased and sold at gallery exhibitions in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia.