In celebration of International Women’s Day, London Heritage Quarter and Artiq present five artistic practices across four office lobbies, offering feminist perspectives on technology, nature, and sustainability. As art often serves as a catalyst for rethinking narratives, the works exhibited here highlight not only the visible ways in which women engage with technology and their frequently undervalued contributions but also the alternative perspectives they bring— perspectives often overlooked in mainstream discourse.
Artists such as Nowshin Prenon, who champions weaving as an art form through her workshops, and Emma Boittiaux, who captures the shared care and advice in women’s breastfeeding groups through her photography, underscores the importance of passing down skills amongst women and how storytelling and knowledge-sharing function as feminist technologies.
Just as these practices preserve traditions and shape communities, sustainable artistic practices reclaim and reinterpret natural resources. Through environmentally conscious practices rooted in nature—such as Sana Rao’s work, Ellen Mae Williams’ use of natural dyes made from discarded food waste, and Rebeca Jewell’s printmaking, which repurposes archival materials from museum collections to raise awareness about contemporary bird trapping—these artists challenge systems that exploit both women and the environment. Click here to read all artisit bios.
Exhibited across the heart of London Heritage Quarter during International Women’s Day, these feminist artistic practices reframe traditional technologies—like weaving, natural dye-making, and storytelling—as forms of innovation, highlighting the pivotal role of women in shaping future ecological resilience.
Featured Artists
Exhibition 1
Ellen Mae Williams Traces I & II
Natural dye, ink, pigment, and graphite on linen
Nowshin Prenon Hermonto Henna
Hand dyed and hand woven Jacquard Silk
Photographs Printed On High Quality Paper
Rebecca Jewell Meadow Headdress
Collage Printed on High Quality Paper
Exhibition 2
Sana Rao Everything Is Waiting For You
Mixed Media On Raw Canvas
Sana Rao All Fires Are The Same Fire
Mixed Media On Raw Canvas
Rebecca Jewell Eagle Wing (Left & Right)
Archival Print On High Quality Paper
Nowshin Prenon Mela
Hand-dyed and Hand Woven Silk
Exhibition 3
Sana Rao It is a Serious Thing Just To Be Alive
Mixed Media On Raw Canvas
Emma Boitteaux She’s Here for Them Series
Photographs Printed On High Quality Paper
Rebecca Jewell Oceanic Egg
Archival Print On High Quality Paper
Nowshin Prenon Borsha
Hand-dyed and Hand Woven Silk
Exhibition 4
Sana Rao Hallucinate a Flower
Indian ink, Acrylic on a Raw Canvas
Ellen Mae Williams Riverbank 01
Natural dye inks and Graphite on Linen
Nowshin Prenon Ghera
Hand-dyed and Hand woven silk
Emma Boittiaux She’s Here For Them Series
Photographs Printed On High Quality Paper
Artist Biography
Nowshin Prenon
Nowshin Prenon is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in woven textile design with a practice focusing on storytelling through material and process, creating hand-dyed and hand-woven artworks with a practice that integrates traditional weaving techniques, deeply influenced by her cultural heritage. Exploring the dynamic relationship between colour and form, she layers textiles to construct intricate compositions, manipulating the sequence of threads through wrapping and playing with line and hue to create visually complex works.
At the core of her practice is the sharing of knowledge through craft. She advocates for weaving and winding techniques as art forms, encouraging the preservation of traditional skills through community engagement and workshops.
Emma Boittiaux
Emma Boittiaux is an artist and photographer born in Normandy, France, and currently based in London. Her research intertwines photography, textiles, embroidery, and writing to explore various themes. With a warm and tender approach to every subject she delves into, her work aims to create meaningful dialogues. The notion of care is central to her practice, woven into every aspect—from the themes she explores to her meticulous embroidery work and the way she photographs others.
Rebecca Jewell
Rebecca Jewell is a London-based printmaker and collage artist. Her intricate drawings of artefacts and bird specimens, along with unique feather collages, are inspired by museum collections and the contemporary hunting and trapping of birds, particularly in the Southern Mediterranean. Rebecca has perfected a technique for printing images onto feathers and assembling them into headdresses and capes.
Ellen Mae Williams
Ellen Mae Williams is a London-based textile artist specialising in natural dyes. After completing a master’s in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2019, she began producing hand-dyed and hand-painted fabrics using sustainable and traditional techniques. Ellen’s work is inspired by landscapes, capturing both intricate natural details and the overall atmosphere of a place. Influenced by the changing seasons, her abstract interpretations of the natural world combine natural dyeing with mark-making, forming a direct dialogue with the environment. This circular approach—connecting inspiration to outcome—is central to her practice.
Sana Rao
Sana Rao is an Indian artist based in London who trained at the National Institute of Design in India and holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Drawing inspiration from the expressionist tradition and the possibilities of more equitable, symbiotic futures, Sana’s work serves as a personal meditation and a safeguard against a mechanised existence. Her practice is shaped by her experiences in the design and technology fields. To counter the digital, her work is conceptually and visually grounded in the physical world, using an earthy palette created from natural materials such as Indian ink and raw canvas.
