About this Event
Vessel of Traces - Kitchen Lithography workshop
(Based on the Exhibition by Huiyan Zhang & Xindi Hu, at The Peckham Pelican)
🌌 Core Concept: Vessel in Time
This workshop and the eponymous exhibition mark the first collaboration between artists Huiyan Zhang and Xindi Hu. It is inspired by writer Ursula K. Le Guin's "Carrier’s Bag Theory of Fiction," which views the novel as a container for holding fragments, relationships, and non-heroic everyday events. We, along with natural elements like stones and trees, are all "vessels of time," carrying layered experiences and changes within our limited lifespan or geological existence.
📍 Unique Venue: The workshop takes place in the creative environment of The Peckham Pelican pub, allowing you to create while surrounded by the ‘Vessel in Time’ exhibition pieces.
✍️ Your Vessel of Traces: What to Expect
Under the guidance of both artists, participants will explore how to translate the everyday, vulnerability, and non-linear memory into artistic expression:
- Print Practice: Engage in creative practice using techniques such as Kitchen Lithography or Monoprint.
- Non-Linear Documentation: By observing and drawing collected natural objects such as branches, leaves, and bark, participants will be invited to imagine connections between these materials and their own emotions and memories. We will explore how traces of nature can become vessels of emotion and time, resonating with the exhibition theme “Vessel in Time.”
✨ Preparation & Suggestions
To ensure you have the best creative experience, please note the following:
- Attire: Please wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty, or bring an apron, as we will be using inks and paints during the process.
- Gathering Traces: We encourage you to collect interesting natural items (e.g., beautiful leaves, small twigs, stones, feathers, etc.) on your way to the workshop. Feel free to bring these into the session to incorporate them as 'traces' in your artwork.
- Bringing Your Own Supplies: We will provide core materials, such as ink, rollers, and some paper. However, if you have any personal art supplies you prefer to use (e.g., coloured pencils, watercolours, or special paper), you are welcome to bring your own toolbox to enrich your creation.
♥️ Practical Information
- Date & Time: 26.10.2025, 14:00-16:00PM
- Location: The Peckham Pelican, 92 Peckham Rd, London SE15 5PY
- Aimed at: Anyone interested in art, philosophy, or creative practice. No prior experience is necessary.
- Tickets: Pay What You Can（suggested £6）
- Includes: All basic materials and instruction from both artists.
🎨 The Artists' Statement & Biography:
✨Huiyan Zhang: @ivyhuiyan_zhang
In her current practice, she uses fungi as a point of departure, exploring their growth in soil through painting, drawing, and printmaking, reflecting on cycles of decay, rebirth, and transformation. Fungi emerge from the soil, inhabiting the space between life and death, fragility and resilience, revealing the subtle entanglements between humans and the non-human world. While maintaining fungi as the core of her practice, she has begun to consider soil as a body, recording layers of time, bearing scars while also holding the potential for healing and regeneration. Inspired by microscopic perspectives, her work re-presents nature as a space of transformation and restoration, where traces of human presence and natural processes intertwine.
Biography: Huiyan Zhang is a Chinese artist based in London. She holds an MA in Fine Art: Printmaking (Distinction) and a BA (Hons) in Illustration (First Class), both from Camberwell College of Arts, UAL. Her work investigates ecological entanglements through microscopic perspectives—particularly fungi—transforming drawings, photographs, and video stills into experimental prints that explore decay, rebirth, and interspecies symbiosis. Zhang has exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society (2025) and the International Original Print Exhibition (2024), and has received the 2024 Hawthorn Printmaker Supplies Award, the Printmakers Council Award, and the East London Printmakers Award. Influenced by Merlin Sheldrake’s writings on fungal ecology and Wim van Egmond’s macro photography, her practice merges traditional printmaking with material experimentation to reframe nature as an agent of transformation.
✨Xindi Hu: @cindywhocindywho
Looking downward, I envision a mirror hollowing inward, reflecting a post-human world that shifts slowly through deep time along with the Earth’s surface into gigantic geological zones unseen by human eyes. Using the Geological space beneath my feet as the backdrop, I incorporate imagery of supernatural encounters shaped by heroine archetypes. These visual encounters don't explain anything but create an allusive narrative that mimics a realistic depiction of the Earth's surface. In this dive, I paint figures and feminine imagery, drawing upon documentation of my personal memories and physical experiences, a collection of oral tales from elders, and research on historical symbols. In my recent study, I developed an idea of thinking of the inner body also as a geological space, a backdrop for my journey, filled with unknowns awaiting further exploration.
Biography: Xindi Hu is a London-based visual artist. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts, in 2023, where she is currently pursuing further studies in Fine Art.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions including Mall Galleries, HJ Gallery, Copeland Gallery and Peckham Pelican. She has collaborated with Zhao Hongfan from the Chinese National Academy of Arts to publish the children’s picture book The Story of Bronze Drum with Guangxi Normal University Press. Her projects have been featured in the Dezeen article “University of the Arts London spotlights nine design student projects.” She was featured in Art Horizons, Volume 5, Issue 2, and was awarded the New Talent Student Merit Award in the iJungle Illustration Competition 2023.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
92 Peckham Rd, 92 Peckham Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
