a conversation with prize-winning artists from bangladesh

artists of the 15th asian art biennale

The Asian Art Biennale provides art lovers with a rare opportunity to view international art at Shilpakala Academy. The event plays an important role in the development of our artists. Mushfiq Zaman speaks to three local artists, Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed, Yasmin Jahan Nupur and Zihan Karim, who were honoured at the event, to hear their thoughts on the Biennale and its impact on contemporary art in Bangladesh.

There are very few events in Bangladesh’s social calendar that command the attention of artists, critics and the general populace quite like the Asian Art Biennale. This landmark exhibition brings art from beyond our borders to our country for audiences to see and experience. Works of our own artists are showcased alongside those by foreign artists, allowing for an exchange of aesthetic perspectives across cultures. Now in its 30th year, the Asian Art Biennale remains a major event for art lovers and artists alike. The 15th edition was held from December 1-31, 2012 and saw three Bangladeshi artists, Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed, Yasmin Jahan Nupur and Zihan Karim, receiving awards for their outstanding work. Jamini took advantage of the occasion to speak with these artists and learn more about their art and hear their views on the Biennale and its place in Bangladesh’s art scene.
Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed, the Grand Prize recipient from Bangladesh, is a self-made artist. He started drawing and painting in his childhood but entered the art world without receiving any formal academic training. He graduated from the University of Dhaka with an MSS in International Relations but chose to become an artist due to his passion for art. He studied the work of local and foreign artists such as Mohammad Kibria, Monirul Islam, Jackson Pollock and Joan Miro and eventually developed his own impressionist style. As a professional freelance artist, he has taken part in several solo and group shows and won many local and international awards, including the Honourable Mention at the 13th Asian Art Biennale.
Ahmed’s Sheer Chaos-25 (2012), which won the Grand Prize, was a mixed media work. The artist used newspaper clippings to create a spider-web like depiction of the chaos induced by the unplanned urban expansion of Dhaka city. “Newspapers can be called a reflection of our society,” said Ahmed, “I wanted to use them to represent the socio-political issues that affect our daily lives.” Ahmed’s artwork comprised myriad voices – including advertisements and articles – that make up our city. “I saw a lot of viewers even reading the things I had cut and pasted onto the canvas,” said Ahmed, “I enjoyed the way the audience interacted with the work.”
Two artists from Chittagong won Honourable Mentions for their video installations at the 15th Asian Art Biennale. The first was Yasmin Jahan Nupur, a young artist who has quickly become one of the most sought-after talents in Bangladesh’s exhibition circuit. “I’ve always enjoyed art and knew that I wanted to become an artist from when I was very young,” declared Nupur, who studied painting and drawing while growing up. She stopped doing water colours in 2006 and began working from then on with contemporary art forms. In recent years, she has participated in a number of group and solo exhibitions in Bangladesh and abroad and has won many accolades including an Honourable Mention at the 13th Asian Art Biennale in 2008.
Crossing Paths (2012) was a thought-provoking video installation that looked back at the Indian Subcontinent’s past and mused on its future. “I was in Karachi for a residency program where I studied the independence movements in the Indian Subcontinent from 1947-71,” said Nupur. “I was there during Eid-ul-Azha and was walking down a street covered with the blood of butchered cows. I wondered if the Pakistani soldiers who invaded our country ever walked down our streets, bathed with the blood of our people.” This idea formed the central focus of her video installation.
The segment on the right showed a pair of feet slowly walking over a blood drenched path; the one on the left showed another pair of feet running on a treadmill. “That image asks where we are going,” said Nupur “the person running on the treadmill is stuck in an endless loop. I think it’s interesting to compare the two scenes and see what meanings one can derive from it.” She believes that the relationship between art and politics is an intrinsic one. “When society is in unrest, you can’t help but feel it,” she said, “you are a part of it. And of course, it is an artist’s duty to express what he or she feels about the world around us. Politicians shout on their microphones, writers shout in their articles and our art is where we shout out loud.”
Ahmed echoed the sentiments voiced by Nupur on the artist’s role in society. Born and raised in Old Dhaka, Ahmed has a deep affection for this part of the city. His work captures the concrete vistas and cityscapes of his Dhaka, as a way to preserve it. As Dhaka continues to develop, the ancient buildings and historical sites in Old Dhaka that are hundreds of years old are being torn down to make way for modern structures. His passion for Old Dhaka and his feelings regarding the continued progress of urban development in Bangladesh are reflected in his works. “It’s become almost unbearable to live in Dhaka nowadays. My art aims to show people a new way of seeing their city.”
Zihan Karim, the second young Bangladeshi artist to win an Honourable Mention at the 15th Asian Art Biennale, began his journey in the contemporary art scene as a painter before enrolling in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka. “Painting was where I got my start,” Karim said, “but I’ve always had an interest in origami and art made with electronic devices.” As a student he was inspired by the works of foreign masters such as Dali and Picasso and local artists such as Dhali Al Mamoon. “I remember the first time I saw one of Dhali’s installations, Water is Innocent. I was mesmerized and wanted to do that kind of work myself.”
This event marked the first time Karim has participated in a Biennale. His A Simple Death (2012) portrays death as an ordinary occurrence amidst the urban chaos of a city. “The video was inspired by a day-labourer who I would always see sleeping on a footpath near a railway station in Chittagong,” Karim remembers, “But, then one day he wasn’t there. I stopped seeing him there and was later shocked to hear that he had passed away. But, what struck me was that no one besides me knew or even cared that this man had died.”
Karim created a public interaction project, where he made a video of a man lying on a footpath and projected it on a roadside. It got different reactions from those who passed by. Some people moved away from it in fear, while others showed it respect and walked around it. However, some people didn’t even notice the installation and walked over it. Karim engaged the viewer through his realistic portrayal of death in a city using video as a medium. This medium is slowly gaining popularity among artists in Bangladesh. “I think artists are experimenting with other mediums and coming out of their two-dimensional and classical approaches to translate their emotions in an honest way,” said Karim, “video performances are created from the need to capture time and come up with new modes of expression.”
Video installations and mixed media work are part of a new wave of conceptual art being exhibited across galleries in Bangladesh. What artists, critics and enthusiasts perceive as ‘art’ today has slowly changed over time by incorporating global tastes and standards. Exposure to these new and exciting art forms is central to the continued development of Bangladesh’s art and culture. “When I was a student, I had friends who came back from studying in art colleges abroad,” said Nupur “they would mention this or that artist, whose work I had never seen and whose names I had sometimes never even heard of.”
Nupur, like many other artists today, took the initiative to learn more about the international art scene through foreign art magazines and the Internet. “Lots of young artists want to work in the contemporary art styles,” said Nupur, “but there seems to be some disconnect between foreign art and ours.” She believes that the curriculum in many of our art institutions are focused on older artistic styles and traditions and teachers seem less keen about embracing the latest trends. Reform to the system is needed and more artists must be sent abroad through residencies or fellowships for training. “Knowledge and exposure are crucial,” said Ahmed “that’s how our artists will be able to match international standards.”
It is impossible to overstate the importance of an event like the Asian Art Biennale for the continued development of Bangladesh’s art and culture. For many artists and art lovers in our country it offers a rare opportunity to experience art from other cultures. The exhibition space functions as an exchange of ideas across countries and traditions. “I got lots of opportunities to interact with foreign artists and share ideas or explore different ways of using certain mediums, etc,” said Karim “they also expressed their interest in the work we’ve done. I think that’s very important because we don’t otherwise get the chance to have this sort of exchange.”
The art from participating countries at the 15th Asian Biennale shared several common features in spite of their geographic or socio-economic differences. These include an affinity for nature, an unease about growing urban development, histories of war and conflict and craft traditions. Art from other countries shared space with paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and other types of work made by our local artists. “If we talk about comparisons between our art and theirs,” Karim said, “I don’t think we have any obligation to do exactly the same kind of work as theirs. I think that over time we will need to realize our own identity and keep working towards developing that niche for ourselves in the international art space.”
The Biennale offered ample opportunity for our artists to learn and experience foreign art, but it also showcased our culture to international critics, intellectuals and the members of the press in attendance. “People who come here and like our work can go back to their own countries and act as our advocates,” said Ahmed. “If there is ever a question over whether or not an international exhibition should feature Bangladeshi art, they can speak on our behalf. If they like it. I think there’s a lot to like in the work done by our artists at this year’s Biennale.”
Despite these positive comments and its value to our culture, the Biennale has also received some negative criticism from viewers and commentators. The major concerns expressed by these critics involve the artwork and the ways in which they are displayed at the event. The selection of foreign art is largely left to the participating countries; this practice does not always result in the best works or the art of the most recognized artists being exhibited in Bangladesh. “There are lots of great artists abroad and even next door in India and in Pakistan who we would like to see at the Biennale,” said Nupur, “Rashid Rana is one of the major artists in the Indian Subcontinent but his work is never shown here. I think getting those artists to participate would mark a huge step forward for the Biennale.” Artists are also given specific instructions about what they should do with the exhibition space they get. “If we take video installations as an example, they require spaces at the site that are appropriate for their needs,” said Karim, “if the organizers would set aside a part of the exhibition for video installations, perhaps in a dimly lit environment so that our audience can experience them better, that would be helpful for us. A lot of artists also produce site-specific work and could use more space.”
Ahmed believes that these problems can be attributed to the fact that the Asian Art Biennale has no curator to guide its artists or create a unified vision for the exhibition. Several foreign Biennales employ curators who are assigned these tasks. “We don’t have many curators in our country,” said Ahmed, “but there are many experienced and capable people like Wakilur Rahman or Dhali Al Mamoon who can take up such responsibilities. Given a few years’ time they can help train a new generation of curators to lead artistic ventures in Bangladesh.” Also, unlike other Biennales, the Asian Art Biennale receives art from only a few parts of the world. “We seldom get to see art from Europe or the Americas here in Dhaka,” said Ahmed; “why not expand the Biennale to include those regions and call our event the Dhaka Art Biennale instead of the Asian Art Biennale?”
Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed, Yasmin Jahan Nupur and Zihan Karim represent the established as well as the emerging generations of artists in Bangladesh, who are striving to carve a place for themselves in the competitive global art arena. The Asian Art Biennale plays an important role for artists like them by not only providing a stage to compete on but also by giving them exposure to new styles and traditions. It is to be hoped that the Biennale’s continued support of Bangladesh’s art market will help these artists develop even more so that they can someday stand tall in the art world.

Mushfiq Zaman is a staff writer for Jamini

The Asian Art Biennale provides art lovers with a rare opportunity to view international art at Shilpakala Academy. The event plays an important role in the development of our artists. Mushfiq Zaman speaks to three local artists, Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed, Yasmin Jahan Nupur and Zihan Karim, who were honoured at the event, to hear their…