BCM Storytelling Chair by Sunbul Akhtar
About the Creation
Sunbul made two chairs for Haringey Feast, one reflecting her own discipline and another inspired by and produced with Haringey Multi Faith Forum to celebrate faith communities and inter-faith dialogue and cohesion in Haringey. The first chair allowed Sunbul to reconnect and rekindle through printmaking her British Pakistani heritage that was so derided in her youth.
The second chair was made with communities, through printmaking with Sunbul Akhtar, attendees were asked what their faith means to them. They explored telling the story of Haringey by looking at the built environment that makes up our communities, and how these buildings inform our identity. Whether a place of worship, or park offering community green space, or our own homes – these are personal sanctuaries within the borough. Attendees created designs of their chosen building, engraved designs onto a block of lino, and printed with ink onto a pink hand-dyed fabric. The colour pink symbolised the juice of mulberries used by local Quakers to make Tottenham cake, still loved by the whole community.
About the Artist
Sunbul Akhtar runs Night Press from her home studio in Muswell Hill. A printmaker working exclusively on lino, Sunbul uses the medium as a form of activism. There is a strong presence of post-colonial themes in her work with the aim of retelling dominant narratives on colonialism and reconnecting with her culture. Her favourite part of the printmaking process is the carving, finding it therapeutic and calming.
She holds workshops in primary schools and Subal’s first major exhibition was at the Museum of London for their Multilingual London programme.
Currently, Sunbul works as a researcher at Aston University’s Centre for Migration and Forced Displacement, exploring alternative forms of research presentation.
About the Community
Community workshops were held with Haringey Multi Faith Forum, Wightman Road Mosque and Muswell Hill Synagogue at Wightman Road Mosque.
