One of the most striking exhibitions at this year’s Dhaka Art Summit was Bangladeshi painter Firoz Mahmud’s photography installation that depicts working class families. In green sunglasses. Made from sewing machine parts.
Mahmud graduated from Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University, completed his postgrad from Amsterdam, finished his PhD from Tokyo University, and was a US state-funded fellow in New York.
His installation, a part of The Missing One exhibition curated by Nada Raza, is called “Soaked Dreams” where Mahmud attempts – and succeeds – at holding up the sky-high dreams of the booming working-class population of the country.
What led to this idea?
The title of this project is “Soaked Dreams” and in this installation people are wearing this dream in their body, in their heart. I did it in different cities in different countries. When I returned to Bangladesh, I saw that Bangladesh has lot of prospective dreams, and has a big future in the garments industry, the architecture sector, arts and culture, and many other fields. And I wanted to portray that by positioning the subjects wearing these glasses, made of bits from garment factory equipment, while looking up at the sky – at the future for Bangladesh that these subjects themselves are creating.
Why the focus on garment workers community?
I was looking specifically for communities that are a driving factor for this bright future of Bangladesh, for families who could contribute to the country’s economy, country’s future. So I looked for families in the garment industry.
I visited several garment factories; it was quite challenging at times to find families because many were shy to be in front of the camera while many others couldn’t commit to so much time.
For example, I invited 50 families but only 20 families showed up.
Why were families such a central part of the story?
The families, along with their children, have their dreams, have their vision, their desire to build their own future, the country, the country’s economy – and I wanted to depict the whole picture.
How did your subjects respond?
They gave texts of their dreams and the children provided paintings of their dreams. This hasn't been exhibited here but I plan to compose something with all of them together.
Before taking their photograph, I asked them to say a little bit about their dreams. And the children and families responded with paintings and text.
A big part of your series is about looking up at the sky, towards their dreams. But no one is photographed outdoors.
This is because the studio had to be taken to the subjects. This was an intentional decision. I wanted to depict where they are living now, their current status, from where they are looking up at their dreams.
What was your inspiration behind the green mechanic glasses?
It’s an inspiration from our childhood – we grew up making sunglasses out of coconut leaves. That was my first inspiration. The green also symbolises ecological concerns and peace. And I wanted to portray that as well.
Do you have any particular message that you want to convey through this series?
Bangladesh is going forward. There are a lot of improvements and developments taking place. Of course there are negative issues in the country, but the Bangladeshi society, education, businesses are also progressing really fast – and my core agenda was to symbolise this set of potentials.
