I am an artist and poet. For the last decade, my work has been inspired by stories told to me by my mother, Trilochan Kaur, about our family history. Both my parents were forcibly displaced by the 1947 Partition of India. Dad was 18 and Mum was only 12. They left their homes in Lahore and everything they had grown up with, never to return. 

Mum told me she was only young so she didn’t really understand what was happening. Later, I found out that there were refugee camps in Ambala all around them- people were starving and surviving on food stamps. I began to understand why she considered it the highest sin to throw away food, why she wouldn’t let us eat in the street, why she counted every penny, why everything had to be used until it was falling apart, why travel scared her, why she was always alert for danger. 

Some objects became especially precious to Mum. She gave me beautiful embroideries, which were safely kept for over 75 years, through many moves. She had sewed them with Bibiji (my maternal Grandmother) in their new house after Partition, by candlelight. I told her I would use them for inspiration in my work and she said, “Make sure you say ‘Made by Trilochan Kaur’.” These embroideries have become central to my practice over the last three years.

The images on the embroideries are based on birds and flowers in their new garden. This idea of recording the landscape of their lives comes from the Punjabi tradition of Phulkari- where women from all the different religious communities would sit and sew what was around them and share their stories. When Punjab was divided in 1947, this tradition was lost as the communities were divided by the border imposed by the Raj. However, in recent years, the practice has begun to be revived.

The idea behind the Patterns and Belonging project was to bring together a group of South Asian women from the diverse communities and give them an opportunity to learn about Phulkari stitches and use these stitches, Indian woodblock and collage to record their stories on Khadi concertina notebooks. The resulting works lead to the Patterns and Belonging exhibition currently being shown in the Culture Lab alongside my work based on Mum’s embroideries and the impact of Partition. 

In 2025, I was invited, by Indi Sandhu, director of the Essex Cultural Diversity Project, to show my work in the Partition Museum in Amritsar. The city of Amritsar was the first stop for Sikhs who survived crossing newly- drawn border dividing India. I showed the first works I made about Partition- Fractured Earth, Story, Cycle, more recent works- Daddy Ka Ramal, Bibiji Da Ghar, Sorrows of My Father and prints of Mumma and Bibiji’s embroideries, alongside a photo of Mum teaching our eldest, Safia, to sew. Passing the skills along the generations. 

About Suman Gujral

Suman Gujral is a multidisciplinary artist working with print, textile and poetry. She is inspired by her history as an immigrant and a child of refugees. Her work focuses on migration, climate change and the partitioning of India in 1947 and 1971. Through print, a medium long used for protest and social commentary, her work cast light on global events. She is a strong advocate that art can enhance our lives and environment and has explored these issues with many community groups and schools. 

Patterns and Belonging

Suman led a project, assisted by textile artist and educator Amarjeet Nandhra, with East London women to create artworks about identity, heritage and belonging. The artworks form a case exploring pattern and belonging which is part of the ‘Patterns’ exhibition currently on display in the UCL Culture Lab.