If Seeds Could Speak of the Past is a hands-on wax sculpting workshop that invites participants to explore wax as a living, responsive material shaped by touch, time, and repetition. The session encourages slow, attentive making, where materials guide the process as much as intention.

Led by artist Sewali Deka, the workshop introduces participants to hand-modelling techniques drawn from the early stages of the lost-wax process. Rather than focusing on finished objects, the emphasis is on process-led making, informed by traditional metal-making vocabularies and craft knowledge systems.

Through stretching, coiling, joining, and building wax surfaces, participants will create small sculptural “memory seeds.” These forms emerge through intuition and reflection, engaging with ideas of land, labour, care, inheritance, and embodied memory.

Audience Take Away:

• Learn foundational techniques of hand-modelling wax

• Understand wax as a fluid, transformative material shaped by time and touch

• Explore how material practices can carry memory and meaning

• Engage with craft-inspired ways of thinking through making

• Create a small sculptural form rooted in personal reflection

Artist Bio

Sewali Deka is an artist and agriculturalist from Assam with a BFA in Painting from the University of Guwahati, Kokrajhar College of Music and Fine Arts, and an MFA in Painting from Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. Her art vividly reflects rural life and nostalgia, deeply connected to the local farmers and indigenous food culture of her region as well as different parts of her nation. Deka’s practice is rooted in the traditional techniques and collective working styles of artisans, which infuse her work with a unique visual vocabulary. Her art evolves through an ongoing exploration of indigenous arts and crafts, and she engages in community-based projects across various mediums, including sculptural installations, painting, film, and photography. As both a woman artist and a farmer, Deka brings a multifaceted perspective to her work, shaped by her experiences in both urban and rural settings. Her artistic process highlights the intersection of her personal experiences with the broader cultural and communal practices, capturing the essence of village life and the rich traditions of her homeland.

This workshop accompanies Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, the first major National Museum of Australia exhibition to tour India, presented in partnership with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, at the Humayun’s Tomb World Heritage Site Museum.