“The fleeting beauty of nature has always fascinated me” – Dinar Sultana Putul

Promising artist Dinar Sultana Putul's artwork series, titled Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion, is currently on display at Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai, India. The unique medium, with handmade colour from stone and indigo on paper has attracted art enthusiasts. The exhibition concludes on June 30. The artist is planning to hold her solo exhibition in Dhaka and Mumbai, alternately. 

Dinar, who was the co-curator of International Art Festival 2020 Nilphamari and Art Festival 2019 Gazipur, is a socio-politically conscious artist, concerned about the society and the environment. "Farmers are no longer able to sustain themselves. Coal politics divide the lands at large. In this frenzied tale of greed and avarice, a void in the previously resonant culture continues to grow. The materiality that I channeled earlier, reprises itself into this body of work, but it is now renewed by a political undercurrent," says the artist.

Dinar's artwork series on display.

Dinar completed her Master of Visual Arts in Painting from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat, India, and Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India. She received a grant from Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy as a trip to Japan, under the 9th Kahal Art Fair. Another grant from Bangladesh Culture Centre, Japan, awarded towards her first pool exhibition at Orange Gallery, Japan. She also received the Gujarat Lalit Kala Academy State Award and Scholarship and Visva-Bharati University Merit Scholarship.

 "The fleeting beauty of nature has always fascinated me. I often wonder how I can translate this materiality of nature into my work," says Dinar Sultana Putul. "To this extent, I have adopted an almost archival, quasi-scientific method of categorising and documenting various hues, textures and surfaces found in nature, all in pursuit of understanding its materiality."

Sensitivity is one of her key artistic traits. "As I transform everyday materials and those associated with rituals, my emphasis is on hand-worked processes," explains the artist. "Often engaging in a play of absurdity, I use cotton-pulp, human-hair, snake-skin and a slew of other discarded ephemerals. I also create my own paper from scratch, using pastes of flower-based pulp and extracting colour from elements such as flowers, barks, seeds, leaves, stones and clay."

 However, Dinar's creation of art is achieved through loss. "The nature in its ever-changing cycles of time never stands still. It is in constant state of flux, and there is an inherent transducer that I see as an external incompleteness," concludes the artist.