“Loss of the Toss is Blessing of Their Disguise,” Firoz Mahmud’s solo art exhibition is on at Dhaka Art Center. This is a display of photographs of controversial celebrities and the innovative artist has included his insightful drawings on the images. The exposition will continue till September 12.
The artist believes that people tend to remember the controversies about a superstar rather than focusing on his or her contributions. “The project aims to protect the good images of the controversial superstars through drawing,” said Mahmud to Dhaka Tribune.
The exhibition is a part of a project titled “Ninki: Urgency of Proximate Drawing Photographs.” Eminent artist Mustafa Zaman, also the editor of art magazine “Depart,” is the writer and curator of the project.
Mahmud has worked on the photos with cut out lines and ink, gel-based roller ball pen and acrylic fluid. The artist says “In the photos the lines are very much strong enough in to of idealise appearances which are highlighted by protective line drawings.”
Mahmud’s works present popular celebrities such as sumo wrestler Asashoryu Akinori, pop icon Micheal Jackson, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, boxer Mike Tyson, footballer Zinedine Zidan, cricket players Shoiab Akhter and Mohammad Ashraful, Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt, Bangladeshi film actor Ananta Jalil and many more. The artist shared with Dhaka Tribune that he collected the photographs from different magazines, advertisements and different other sources.
Mahmud has marked the lines to the heroes in a way that change the visual meaning of the photographs and ask for their protection.
The artist mentioned: “It takes a long time to develop the idea and to draw the strokes, which has been emphasis strongly to uphold the picture and meaning.”
Mahmud has projected a photo story on sumo wrestling which catches the attention of the viewers in the exhibition. The artist perused his PhD degree in Japan and he spent a quality time in watching sumo wrestling.
“I became a huge fan of Asashoryu Akinori. But he fell into big controversies with violations, disqualifications and an assault. I highlighted the black history of Japanese sumo wrestler society which has the longest history of entertainment culture in Japan. I take photos of them to draw and collect their images from magazines, billboards and advertisements. I draw line structure on the photos where they are about to fall and where they need strength to hold their position,” Mahmud stated.