It is quite a common thing for humans to attach emotions to things that they use for a long time and get habituated to. The first car that a middle class family manages to buy or a rickshaw that helps earn bread for an entire family, will always have a special meaning to the owners. The vehicles we use can have special meanings to us; so much so that the 2006 animated movie Cars became a huge hit, as the movie showed cars to have emotions and thoughts. But however nothing lasts, and vehicles are no exceptions.
Noted photographer Shafiq Rahman has come up with a thought provoking photo exhibition titled The Dying Grounds, where he has captured photos of dumped vehicles found in junkyards. The 72 photographs on display at the Dhaka Art Centre at Dhanmondi in the capital can push the boundaries of what is commonly considered as art by many.
Rahman has taken photos at Sher-e-Banglanagar dump yard, where unused old cars, ruins of vehicles after road accidents, illegal cars, rickshaws, motorbikes and bicycles have been dumped and forgotten.
The vehicles, left under the open sky, are tarnished with rust and falling apart.
Sculpture 5, a photo on display is a powerful one indeed. The photo looks like a pile of rusty skeletons of rickshaws, all jumbled together. Even though the hardworking rickshaw pullers are absent in the photo, one can’t help but think of them while seeing the photo. Like the rickshaws in the photo, the rickshaw pullers also are ignored in our society; they are the nameless masses.
Another aspect that has emerged strongly in Rahman’s photos is that grasses, shrubs and mosses are growing on and around the rusty metal bodies in such a way that it looks like the green is engulfing all. Mighty trucks that used to reign on the highways with their enormous body and powerful engines have helplessly surrendered to green foliages in Abosor 1, one of the photos of Rahman at the exhibition.
The exhibition opened on September 5 will remain open for all from 3:00pm to 8:00pm till tomorrow.
-With New Age input
