A Bolton artist, who volunteers at The Ferns Primary Academy in Farnworth, will exhibit her work in London this September.
Dr Aruna Mene, who has run three fabric collage workshops at (name of school please) and has more planned in the next few months, will show upto 35 of her fabric collages in a solo exhibition at Nehru Centre, Mayfair, London from September 23 to 27, 2019.
She will also be displaying crafty things like rag rugs, fabric rope baskets, cushion covers and possibly wearable art - all from fabric waste and recycled textiles. There will be art greeting cards from images of her collages and some embroidered greeting cards.
“I started making my fabric collages, initially as mixed media, but for the last 12 years, I have been making pure fabric collages,” says Aruna, who was awarded a certificate of highly commended in the category of art, film and media as an inspirational woman in the North West.
“In the last few years many Indian tailors, who came to know about my work and the work I do for charity, now send me sackfuls of exquisite fabrics, which would otherwise be destined for landfill. Many of these fabrics are man-made and thus completely non-biodegradable and environmentally unfriendly. I am very passionate about being environmentally friendly and am happy, that I am creating things of beauty from this fabric waste.”
Aruna is a recently retired hospital consultant and is now able to devote more time to her art. She has produced a series called 'Beauty under the microscope' based on images in histopathology. Four of these are hanging in Royal Blackburn Hospital. When Prof Mary Sheppard was at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London she commissioned Aruna to produce three collages on Cardiac Pathology, which now hang in St George's Hospital, London. One of the landscape images TEM (Transmission Elecron Microscopy) of the common cold virus in nasal epithelium, appeared on the cover of The Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2009. An image of her non-medical fabric collage 'Tree of Life' appeared on the cover of Gut, a journal of gastroenterologists. There were write ups about her work in the BMJ insight publication.
Profits from sales will go to Neonatal ICU University College Hospital, London, Evalina children's hospital, at St Thomas hospital, London, Nirmalya trust in Pune India, for rehabilitation of physically challenged people and Hemalkasa Health Foundation UK (UK registered charity) for medical costs of Hemalkasa tribal hospital in Central India.
Her images were used by Tosoh in their 2015 calendar and one of her images will be used in the 2020 Multi faith Calendar, Reimagining Peace and Harmony, published by the Multi faith Action Society, Canada.
This year Aruna has been included in a book 'Hundred stories, Hundred inspirational women' published in Manchester.