Invisible sufferings of women

Nurun Naher Supti's 2nd solo exhibition is on at Zoom Gallery in the precinct of Alliance Francaise. Twenty two symbolic works depict the hidden  ufferings of women. The exhibit began on December 5 and will run till December 19.  At the inauguration at Café Veranda, chief guest Rafiqun Nabi said, “While artists work on numerous subjects, they often fail to grasp the essence of reality. I am delighted to see that Shupti could express her real life feeling into her work.”

That is where Nurun Naher breaks new ground. In her paintings, Nurun Naher depicts the sufferings of women, when they shut out the world and stifle their feelings. The artist uses her everyday experiences to delineate her work. As a woman, it is easy for her to interpret the inner feelings of women. She hopes that her art will make a difference to the lives of  deprived women.
She aspires to jolt society to a greater awareness of the aches and pains of women as they remain silent about their sufferings and their dashed the ground hopes and dreams. They do not give vent to their tortured psyche for fear of society, explains the artist.
 In one of her works, we see leaves twined around a woman in green burnt umber, chrome yellow and burnt sienna. Only one of her eyes is visible. We move on to a painting, in which both the eyes of the subject are visible. She has a spider on her as a dainty blue-bird, with an orange head and neck flies by. There are swirls and curls in brown, added to the usual climbing plants, that one finds in forest. It is in shades of blue, black, green, orange and white. The lips of the woman are pink. The backdrop is of a deeper colour than the rest of the work.
  We also see a body of a woman, with birds' wings in yellow and black. The woman is lying amongst the plants. The midriff of the woman and the sari in white are visible. She is covered by yellow and black leaves. Above her here is the luminous moon in yellow. One finds blue, green, yellow and brown  that heighten the charm of the painting.
One sees a reclining figure of a woman amidst a forest. There appear to be snowdrops on her the right. The tendrils of plants—blue and brown-- are added here too. The leaves cover the woman's face. Her face and hands are in orange and burnt –sienna. Yellow and white add to the beauty of colours of the artist.
Recurring leitmotifs in Nurun Naher's paintings are a  spider's web and the unwanted insect. These are mysterious symbols of fear and agony.
The artist says that the hurdles that women face will always exist along with their intense mental pain. The spider's web, she says, symbolises the barriers that are put up in the way of women. Supti, in her speech, expressed her gratitude to Almighty for giving her the opportunity and strength to be an artist. “I recall my belated father, former journalist and activist of Language Movement, Shafiuddin Ahmed, my elder brother Saiful Azad who inspired me to continue my work, and connoisseur of art Abdul Hai, who had played a pivotal role in my life to become an artist,” she said. “I hope my artwork will touch your heart as I tried to convey my message through it portraying all kind of hindrances that prevails around the women.”