The viewers in the room at Drik Gallery were soaking in the sights and the stories of people who left Bangladesh for Britain decades ago and built their life in a foreign land but still long for home.
The Matir Tan or call of home always lingers.
UK-based artist Mohammed Ali’s show Bangladeshi Tales from Britain exhibited the untold stories of Bangladeshi immigrants to Britain through his artwork at Drik Gallery on Monday. Ali took the audience on a journey of exploring Bangladeshi immigrant heritage through projected visuals.
Ali showed the audience a series of video contents, portraits, interviews, stills of the Bangladeshi immigrants to Britain. Bangladeshi musician Shuommo Saha performed live during the show. His live electronic music created an ambience of nostalgia for the audience in the room. The timeless track “Ore Nil Doriya,” while the visuals of Bangladeshi immigrants in Britain was being projected, was speaking of their longing to feel the warmth of home, the wind against their face in their motherland.
UK-based artist Mohammed Ali, left, addresses the audience at the Drik Gallery during the Bangladeshi Tales from Britain exhibition on Tuesday; January 11; 2021 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka TribuneThis show was not just another artwork for Ali. He came to Bangladesh this time to get closure. Ali was in tears when he was recalling the memories of his parents who waded through the road as an immigrant Bangladeshi in Britain and gave their children a better future. Ali sees the greatness in ordinary people like his parents whose stories were never deemed important in the history.
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“I used to be very nonchalant about my heritage and culture. However, since I lost my father, I started doing some soul searching about my Bangladeshi heritage and this show is part of it,” he told Dhaka Tribune.
Ali told Dhaka Tribune that through this show he wants to celebrate the Bangladeshi immigrants in Britain. He thinks Bangladeshi immigrants have a rich history, but they did not get enough exposure and this is the reason it is important to document and archive their stories.
Ali said he is not sure what genre this show falls into; however, he thinks this is the beauty of it.
“I am calling it a sharing session, not an exhibition. There will be videos, music performances, abstract photographs, films, and speeches. I will be interacting with the audience as well,” he told the correspondent in an interview a day before the show.
Interview
Mohammed Ali is a street-artist that uses his art to empower communities, often celebrating community stories around faith and migration. For nearly two decades, he has created murals, art installations, live performances and film projections, to get people to look into each other's lives in an increasingly polarized society. He has been a pioneer in the street-art movement, fusing street art with Islamic script and patterns, delivering powerful and moving messages.
Mohammad Ali sat with Dhaka Tribune and shared his journey.
Is it your first solo exhibition in Bangladesh?
It is not really an exhibition. It is an experimental sharing session. I am mainly a graffiti artist but here I am working with history and heritage. I performed in Bangladesh before but I am doing this kind of experimental sharing session for the first time in Bangladesh. Drik is an institution known on a global level. So, in a sense, I am doing something like this on this large scale for the first time in Bangladesh.
Is there any personal story that inspired you to do this show?
I was born and raised in a city called Birmingham. My parents are from Sylhet who immigrated to the United Kingdom in the late 50s. I have been exploring my identity as a British Bangladeshi for quite some years now. When I lost my father in 2009, I started the journey to explore my motherland, my origins, and my father’s place of birth. Almost all my life, I was comfortable to say that I am British. I suppressed the Bangladeshi side of mine although I have close family ties here. I lost my mother to Covid last year and now I understand the calling from my motherland. I always say you can run all you like from your heritage but one day it will ask you who you are. I definitely ran for a long time. That really sums up my experience with my Bangladeshi identity.
Bangladeshi immigrants have a rich history but they do not get enough exposure, according to artist Mohammad Ali Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka TribuneTell our readers what the show us about?
I want to tell the unique narratives and stories of who we are because I think we neglected our own narratives as British Bangladeshi for too long. British Bangladeshis like my father, left Bangladesh a long time ago and transformed the cuisine of Britain with their culinary art. These people are not celebrated as much as they should be. I went on interviewing these people and telling their stories through my art.
How did you persuade them to speak up?
The history of British Bangladeshi people has never really been archived in the museum. However, the people I interviewed were really not into jargons like archiving. So, I told them “Do you not want their great grandchildren to know the struggle you had when you came to the foreign land, do you not want them to know the vision you had?'' Then they got excited and started telling their stories.
Do you want to change negative narratives associated with the word immigrants through your art?
I want to celebrate the history of Bangladeshi immigrants in Britain. Immigrants have been looked down upon for too long. The world often sees them only as ‘poor’ people. However, they have a rich history that the world needs to see. The stories of Bangladeshi people who immigrated to Britain in the 40s and 50s are also part of the history of Bangladesh. Why are we not seeing that?