South Asian Heritage Month

Join us in celebrating South Asian culture with free-to-visit art installations by Saroj Patel as well as workshops and performances by Bengali creative collective, Oitij-jo, and The Space. 

Artist Saroj Patel has created a two part installation within Crossrail Place Roof Garden. Shade of Two Suns is comprised of a mural on the west end of the gardens, injecting colour and vibrancy into the space, as well as a series of handsewn flags, originally commissioned by RGB Kew, and now re-hung and re-imagined within the gardens. The theme of this year’s South Asian Heritage Month is ‘Roots to Routes’ and Patel’s installations embody this through her exploration of nature, heritage, travel and craft. As you traverse the gardens, witness the handmade blend with the natural, signalling a sacred place where plants, pollinators and people meet.

Read what Saroj has to say about the artworks:

These artworks are a celebration of my journeys across India and a reflection of my identity as a second-generation British Indian. The installation brings together a printed mural and hand-made flags — two interconnected elements inspired by the places, people, and patterns that have shaped me.

Together, the mural and flags speak to a duality: the meeting of two homelands, India and the UK. They represent the layered identity I carry, and the sense of belonging I continue to shape — one rooted in both heritage and personal discovery.

In addition to Patel’s artwork, Oitij-jo, a collective providing platforms for creative practitioners to enhance British/Bangla engagement with wider global communities, and The Space, a local theatre organisation dedicated to increasing access to the arts, will be running creative workshops and performances in the roof garden:

Download Saroj Patel’s mural as a colouring in sheet! 

Patel’s mural is made up of six distinct patterns. She has kindly provided these for us in black and white to be printed off and coloured in! 

Download the six separate designs here: 

1- Lotus

2- Snake

3- Sun 

4- Bird 

5- Peacock 

6- Pattern