'A victim of the spoken partition'

The works a new exhibition at Mumbai-based Guild are homage to the resonating hollow cry beyond politics, beyond countries, beyond continents; across borders and over wires into freedom, peace and harmony to floss homes, families, oceans, fields, land and skies. Here’ a quick look at their core philosophy:

‘From 1.7 million mi² To 55,598 mi²’

Tayeba Begum Lipi’s work – ‘From 1.7 million mi² To 55,598 mi²’ – a series of four circular panels framed in razor blades, sear separation, partitions and memories. The subcontinent with a land mass of 1.7 million sq. miles, is dissected into maps of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The hallucination and desires of unity and oneness are things of the past.

The artist recalls – “When I was a child, I used to hear about THOSE HAPPY DAYS from my parents while the inhabitant from different beliefs and perspectives used to live together happily in one large land.” The happiness was an unselected political option against those of homelessness, refugees and unrest. Lipi’s four etched maps on mirror polished stainless-steel plates, create a scratched and wounded reflection of the viewers who are survivors or an aftermath of partitions, borders and barbed fences.

A victim of the spoken partition

To deal ‘loudly with the heights and frights of political civilization’, Anisuzzaman Sohel has created a series of mixed media works that include reflections of his own appearance to depict the projection of being a first-hand victim of the spoken partition. Describing his works as an “interior monologue”, the artist juxtaposes the sharp and the fine, the flowers with the daggers and clichés the freedom of birds with barbed wires. Sohel ploys beauty with brute, existing yet struggling unresolved at any given instance.

His relationship with his works and imagination is a permeable border between hypo and hyper, real and surreal. “To drag a line, to separate, the barbed wire went across the middle of the green field, road, yard and even the middle of the house in some areas. But the people who have the same blood flowing through their vein (and vain), have the same provisions, mounting up in the same area and lived simultaneously for thousands of years...how can a border separate them being together? Is it possible to divide with a boundary marker?!”