Rickshaw painter turned artist Bahram has experimented with human and animal figures in his surrealistic paintings on display at the Dhaka Art Centre.
His use of bold lines and bright colours follow the age-old tradition of rickshaw paintings, but the messages the self-taught artist delivers in his innovative paintings address human life in simple manner as bards do in their lyrics.
Through such hybrid imagery figures, Bahram creates illusion and obscurity to narrate dreams, frustration, human relationship and spiritually. The magic created by the skilled artist on the colourful paintings captivates the viewers.
The 12-day exhibition titled De-real features 39 acrylic on canvas paintings.
‘I use human and animal figures as metaphors to deliver my messages,’ Bahram tells New Age.
One of the displayed paintings titled Animal Likeness depicts a human face engraved with an image of a cow. ‘Trough the painting I wanted to expose the
tedious mentality of some people in society, who behaves like dirty creatures such as crow’, said Bahram explains.
Another very beautiful painting is Elephant Society in which the artist creates the image of an elephant through the images of human figures. ‘Through mighty elephant image I address the old saying that “unity is strength”. If people are united they are strong enough to do anything,’ Bahram explains.
The image of a bowing human figure on a human face in Bahram’s painting titled Rise of the Chaprasi depicts the fact that subordinates show loyalty in front of the bosses. According to Bahram, ‘A servant might obey his master’s order but in reality s/he might not have any respect for the master.’
In another painting titled Eyes of The Hunter, Bahram creates the eyes of a strongly build man through the images of two beautiful deer to symbolise the hunter’s desire to hunt.
Inaugurated on January 10, the exhibition will remain open for everybody from 3:00 to 8:00pm till January 22.
-With New Age input
