Urban Youth Fest
Artists satirise current political turmoil
Young artists criticised the current political crisis through their work in a group exhibition Goethe-Institut at Dhanmondi organised as part the institute’s month-long urban youth celebrations programme beginning on Thursday.
Some of these artworks also satirize the apathetic nature of the urban youth. The exhibition also portrays the fact that despite having the potential of bringing about positive changes in society, many youths are wasting their energy in meaningless endeavours.
The show features photographs, installations, sculpture and graffiti.
A collage titled Portraits of Politics by Jay Ghani, a Pathsala student, features six photographs portraying politics that has sadly become synonym of disturbance to the peace in the country.
He did not capture the real life photos of the ‘evil politics’, rather created his own photos to address the issues. To give his collage a more authentic colour, the young artist has tagged relevant newspaper headlines.
One such photos satirises the tragic Biswajit murder incident through the image of a chapatti (cleaver) as the innocent man was chopped by the terrorists on December 10 last year.
Another photograph of the collage depicts a broken visage of Buddha tagged with a title that hints to the tragic incident of Ramu on October 10, 2012.
The third photograph in the collage portrays an image of a school girl’s blood-stained uniform tagged with a title ‘school girl hurt in blasts’ shows how the innocents and the commoners become victims to the many political turmoil.
‘Politics has become a word associated with violence and fear in our country. I have selected a few violent incidents to depict the nature of politics in our country,’ shared Jay Ghani.
Other thoughts have been expressed in artworks by other young artists. Sanjay Biswas and Protik Biswas have jointly displayed an interesting sculpture addressing to the lethargic nature of the urban young generation.
Titled Thoughtlessness, the sculpture shows a human figure walking forward while his head is lying far behind him. The work, thereby, satirises the fact that most of the people of the country are ‘aimless, guideless, sometimes helpless, and all in all thoughtless.’
Another interesting installation work is Pawns vs Royals, jointly done by Ahmad Ibrahim, Kazi Tahsin Agaz and others. The installation shows chess board where the royals are barricaded by the pawns indicating to the power of the rising youths who are becoming politically aware.
Besides, the graffiti work titled We are Bangladeshi, Too and an installation titled Origami Crane Poetry Slam are also colourful and thought-provoking. The exhibition will continue till November 24.
-With New Age input
