Artist Sanjib Datta has addressed social anomalies from different perspectives in his ongoing fourth solo exhibition at Bengal Shilpalay in Dhanmondi.
The show titled, Je Jiban Pharinger (a life like that of a dragonfly), showcases the artist’s previous and recent works in four series such as Reformation of Dreams, Coal, Bad Times and Good for Everything.
Dragonfly has been used as a metaphor in his Reformation of Dreams series that the artist has been working on since 2005. The dragonfly metaphor is Sanjib’s creative borrowing from poet Jibananada Das’ use of the metaphor in the famous poem Aat Bachhar Age Ekdin (A Day Eight Years Ago).
‘For Sanjib, the dragonfly, with its unending restlessness and very brief life, symbolises the contemporary life,’ evaluates art-critic Abul Monsur in the catalogue of the exhibition.
In the acrylic works of the series Reformation of Dreams such as number 4, 14, 18, 21, 26, the artist has painted human beings with wings of dragonflies symbolically represent the urge for freedom and liberty.
Another of his acrylic series, Coal, focuses on the recent political turmoil. He has created human figures burned to black coal. In a panting of the series, Coal 1, the horrible and pathetic looking one-eyed burned figure reminds nothing less than that humanity is being burned.
The Bad Times series addresses the political turmoil. Most appealing work of the series, done in screen print, is Bad Times 7 which depicts Biswajit murder. In the print, the sadly familiar frightened face of Biswajit trying to ward off the dagger of politics has been captured brilliantly.
In Bad Times 1, the artist has printed a broken statue of Hindu goddess, also a familiar phenomenon in the present day political practice which includes random attack on minority people and their belief.
In the last series, Good for Everything, Sanjib depicts the fragile and fake consumer world. All the works of this series show some products, mostly ‘wonderful oil’, with the caption ‘good for everything’. But the irony is depicted by the artist through putting some unhappy men/women lying or sitting beside the good for everything product.
‘In most of the works displayed here, I have tried to express my response to the socio-political anomalies,’ said Sanjib Datta.
Inaugurated on February 11, the exhibition will end tomorrow.
-With New Age input
