Identity gives us ways to discern ourselves with thoughts and ideas that can give us a shell of belonging, where we can shelter our vast cosmic emptiness. At times it takes us closer to certain ancestral roots or a nostalgic merge of closeness that soothes us. And then again it can create separation, discrimination leading to distraction.

The need for identity is also a way to realize our distinctive unique self, to explore our entity in the placement of the universal whole, relating to responsiveness.

 

Identity is a chameleon of thought interpretation of our thinking self, which can be vast, limitless, or unyielding, battered with timidity.

 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

 

Tayeba Begum Lipi – Exploring identity, gender politics, contradiction deriving from the stereotyped separation of sexes and ignorant belief system ….all this and the impact on creating defenselessness and leading existential crisis is her voice.

She creates sculptural replicas with safety pins as metaphors of personal objects into intimate belonging and external entities of self. Creating motifs of undergarments, shoes, bags, and others as objects conveying its practical uses along with its inherent need to highlight, a quest for identity. Safety pins can resemble the association of time and resonance. As well as brutal sharpness, objects linking incidences, hurt, or a volatile act. Sculptural armor-like appearance conveying sacred Shield of inner vulnerabilities from the external harshness.

 

Ashfiqa Rahman – As an artist, she investigates issues that are related to specific chosen remote places as an exploration and reinventing neglected concerns into a state of awareness. The physical act of abuse and its manipulation persuasion to perform unwilling sexual intercourse as means of power and socio-political domination. How remote environment is also manipulated by the authorities or the power players to create ignorance and limitation to pass on propaganda, to prohibit learning and development. And by linking art and documentation, incorporating through photography and installation she renders her insight of responsiveness.

 

Yasmin Jahan Nupur – She renders the traditional weaving technique of Jamdani as a means of aspiration. She uses the textural motifs of the traditional weavers and transports her understanding and anticipation by interpreting, rearranging, and configuring them into an incorporated means of visual expression. Where she renders the weavers’ traditional geometric and repetitive meditative patterns into a converting temperament of watercolor and ink medium on paper. She also used text on her jamdani woven fabric to induce emotions and experiences within the realm of social political and personal agendas.

 

All three artists from Bangladesh currently living and working in Dhaka.