Sculpting away plastic
As the world struggles with plastic pollution, self-taught artist Emilia Roy found a creative way of recycling the waste generated by the synthetic matter.
The sculptor from Barishal’s Agailjhara upazila builds statuettes from casting polybags and plastics. She also uses scrap cotton and human hair along with polythene to create patchworks of art.
Born with a creative bone in her body, Emilia was always interested in drawing, writing poetry and lyrics, and singing songs.
The amateur artist could not continue her education beyond the higher secondary level, but did not give up her creative pursuits.
“After passing my HSC exam, I got married to Alfred Roy of the same upazila. Although my academic life came to a stop after that, I continued my hobbies and artistic activities,” she said, adding that her artwork became her solace after the death of her husband 20 years ago.
The idea of using polythene as a medium for sculpting occurred to her one day in 1990, when she was cooking a dish. She noticed how the heat from a hot utensil melted a poly bag lying next to it.
“Seeing that, I thought I could burn and melt plastic to create sculptures by pouring the molten synthetic into clay models,” she said.
“I started collecting polythene bags and scraps from family members, different hawkers and other people to make sculpture,” Emilia said.
She said she made sculptures of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Mother Teresa, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and other renowned personalities.
Her works also include statues of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an artwork representing the mass killings by the Pakistani army and their collaborators in 1971, and a map of Bangladesh with Bangabandhu’s face on it.
Her political conscience guided her in making the sculpture of Sheikh Russel, youngest son of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, standing in front of the killers of the Father of the Nation and his family members. Russel was only 10-year-old when the killers took his life on the fateful day of August 15, 1975.
“I modelled the figure of Sheikh Russel after my 3-year-old son Tinu Roy, who died at home from lack of medical care during the Liberation War,” said Emilia, her grief evident in her work.
The mother of five children, now around 70, lives in Rahutpara under Goila union of Agailjhara, and sometimes travels abroad to one of her two sons.
With age, Emilia has developed different types of physical complications, but is still active in her artistic ventures.
The only recognition this artist seeks is to be able to present some of her creations to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the eve of Mujib Borsho, to be observed marking the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“That is the last wish of my life,” Emilia said.
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