'Soliloquies of the Beginning'

Photo: Courtesy

Soliloquies of the Beginning is the first exhibition hosted by a new artist collective called Uttorkolpo. Its founding members Bipasha Hayat, Golam Faruque Swapan and Kazi Shahid responded to what they perceive to be a gap between art and the general public. Uttorkolpo envisions to work beyond time, to unite people of various backgrounds and while doing so, they aim to further the surrounding social development, in which they believe, the arts and culture have a major role to play.

The exhibition features artists from Indonesia, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It makes a statement on what contemporary art has evolved to become in Bangladesh in terms of content, use of colour and presentation. Moving away from the subtle uses of colour that we are used to seeing in this part of the world, this exhibition brings out the beauty as well as the striking nature of rich and vibrant hues. Auntora Azad, a young artist of only 24, presented panels swathed in backgrounds of shocking pink with paintings of plants and twisted traffic poles as a statement on the havoc that the modern human has wreaked on nature.

Kazi Shahid follows up his work from the Asian Art Biennial with yet another absorbing installation of his paintings presented in disjointed and distorted panels which completes a strong message when coupled with the title, The Parts of an Accident. Two sketches by Joydeb Roaja are noteworthy due to the realness of his depiction of women: with no attempt in romanticising women, he draws their arms and feet in stocky shapes, a result of the physical labour they are made apparent to be involved in.

Malaysian artist Hadi Sosento's work titled Matahari (The Sun) are highly textured paintings of acrylic and gloss paint on canvas. Its luminous effect and the slow deviations between the colour schemes from one canvas to the next, while being aesthetically pleasing also inspires thought on what the sun can mean to be in an individual's life. The exhibition will run till tomorrow at Alliance Française de Dhaka.