A group exhibition titled “Urban Experience” where the participant artists and poets explore both the positive and negative aspects of urban life is going on at the Bengal Art Lounge in Gulshan.
The show is an outcome of a week-long workshop. With the help of two visiting artists, Whitney Baker on poetry and Andrew Saftel on printmaking, the theme given is to get an outlook of the formidable challenges and opportunities of urban life. The workshop was conducted in Dhaka and Rajshahi organised by the Bengal Foundation and American Center of the U S Embassy.
The unique show presents combination of poetries and prints. Sometimes the poetries compliment the artworks, while some paintings are visual expressions of the verses. As the theme suggests, most of the works present high-rise buildings, rickshaws and different vehicles to represent city life.
Through the artworks, the artists and poets try to find out answers of some questions: Is living in a city an advantage, or a curse? How to express oneself in enclosed urban spaces? How to interpret the often contradictory issues raised by rapid urbanisation – where congested urban centres are sources of both formidable challenges and opportunities?
The artists came from different areas including students from Fine Arts to professionals. They have expressed congested urban centres without living any space on the canvases. The prints narrate the sprawl of urbanisation.
Representing urban experience, artist Abdullah Al Bashir has depicted two boys on a street over a huge net. At the background, birds can be seen sitting unruffled on an electric wire which is a common scenario of the city where there is no security for the birds.
Rahul Amin Tarek's artwork depicts a sketch of a man who is observing flying and floating objects made out of paper such as kites and boats. The person inside the wall perhaps has an urge to become a paper objects which are free.
Using a red pen, Nityananda Gaine has marked the most congested places of the capital city like Airport Road, Motijheel, Farmgate, to name a few on his canvas. On a gloomy background, Saurav Chowdhury has represented high-rise buildings which deprive us from the bright blue sky and soothing greenery.
On the contrary, Anika Marium Ahmed presents a remote village in her artwork which, perhaps, express her inner self that still seek for the serenity of rural life.
The show will continue until 8pm, July 29.
