NAT’L ART BIENNALE
Rahman wins award for depicting Rana Plaza tragedy
Endowed artist Mohammad Hasanur Rahman has won the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Honourable Mention Award for his installation work Signature at the 20th National Art Biennale, organised by
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
The 20×13 feet installation narrates the tragic death of the victims of the collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar, which is considered as one of the biggest building collapse tragedies in the world.
A wooden structure with boxes in three rows and eight columns has been constructed wherein 24 bodies made from fibre glass have been kept in the installation to remind the viewers of April 24 tragedy at Savar, when the building housing five garment factories collapsed.
The bodies are kept in such a way that only the legs are visible, and a bar-code has been attached to the feet of every figure so as to mean that the value of these workers to those factory owners are nothing more than shirts and pants that they make.
Another body has been placed in front of the wooden structure. This is a self cast of the artist. The figure is laid on a wheeled plank of wood which, the artist says, ‘represents our fluid morality’.
‘We are not morally strong to prevent such misdeeds, nor can we ensure the poor their dues when they are dead. We forget them too easily. That is why they remain ignored-alive or dead’, shares Rahman.
‘This work is intended to show my own reaction to what I saw at Adharchandra High School where the unidentified bodies were kept’, said the artist. ‘The installation attracts many visitors who have expressed their admiration for my creative work’, the artist added.
Born in1975 in Barisal, Rahman is a professional art conservationist who did an MA in Art Conservation at School of Arts and Social Sciences of Bart Hall Newcastle in England. Earlier, he had obtained his MFA degree on Modeling and Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University.
He has attended around 50 art workshops and camps in several countries including Bangladesh, India, Japan and Netherlands.
To his credit, his works, mainly installations, have been exhibited in many group shows both at home and abroad.
-With New Age input
