Stamp Making Workshops with Ben Soedradjit

May 8 & 15, 2021

Create and design your own stamps to take home in a step-by-step workshop with arts educator Ben Soedradjit. Taking inspiration from the sentō pilgrimage stamp collection featured in the Steam Dreams: The Japanese Public Bath exhibition, participants will learn how to design and carve a stamp made from either styrofoam or lino tiles.

On Saturday, May 8, kids will be able to enjoy stamp making using materials found around the home such as styrofoam and pens and pencils. The following workshop on May 15 introduces a more advanced method of stamp making including how to use carving tools to carve stamps out of lino tiles.

The workshop on May 8 is suitable for children between ages 7-13.
The workshop on May 15 is recommended for ages 13 and over.

JAPAN AND STAMPS
Stamp collecting in Japan has its roots in a century-old practice called goshuin, the name for beautifully-designed stamps found at temples and shrines across Japan. Visitors stamp goshuin with red ink on a piece of paper or book to serve as proof of visiting or worshipping at the shrine or temple. While goshuin used to be available to those who embarked on long pilgrimage journeys to shrines and temples, the popular custom now extends to other landmarks such as train stations and sentō, making collecting them a fun hobby for tourists and locals alike.

The Steam Dreams: The Japanese Public Bath exhibition features stamp prints by Toshizō Hirose that were made to generate interest in local bathhouses, as well as an original stamp carved for The Japan Foundation Gallery to mark your own pilgrimage to the Steam Dreams exhibition.

ABOUT BEN SOEDRADJIT

Ben Soedradjit is an artist-educator that works in a range of mediums that include painting, printmaking and drawing. His work aims to explore themes of identity through the representation of images. Research into the layered cultural histories of both Australia and Indonesia, the vernacular, paradox, popular culture, positions of power, and personal histories inform the visual language employed in his practice. The intention of these works is to create a catalyst for dialogue, reflection, and engagement, that embraces projections of multiple understandings and theoretical fluidity. He is a graduate of the University of New South Wales and has works included in regional, university and international collections. He currently lives and works in Sydney.