Door

Multi-channel video, archival prints, and objects

Exhibition: The year-long art project was developed to celebrate the recognition of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream as a UNESCO Memory of the World (Asia-Pacific) register entry. Nineteen artists ultimately exhibited their work in the exhibition.

Reimaging Sultana's Dream, 6 December 2025 – 7 March 2026

Liberation War Museum, Agargaon, Dhaka

The visual narrative is inspired by the power and imagination of my grandmother and the women of her time in the region where my family's roots belong. The experiences I see of them in some of my memories reflect a kind of guardianship. Although I did not see any clear manifestation of women's autonomy or empowerment among them, they nevertheless created their own world centred on work, knowledge, and everyday life within the family and social circle. They were the rulers and guardians of that realm. Although the narrative is not a direct account of the life or work of any individual, it is a blend of memory and imagination, where an attempt is made to piece together fragmented narratives through images and stories.

In this narrative, Sultana’s Dream (1905), a Bengali feminist utopian story written by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, serves as an underlying reference. Portrayed from the text of Sultana’s Dream, I have reimagined and fictionalised the memories of my relatives through elements of science fiction and fantasy.

 

    Installation view                                          video still

 Installation view   

video still

Installation view 

video stillInstallation view

Broken Lens

Mixed-media installation 
Two-channel video (TV and projector), sound object, archival print as a counter gaze of the video and Bengali and English LED neon text
Exhibition: Body and the Map, curated by Sharmillie Rahman
Bengal Shilpalay, Dhaka, 2024

The incident occurred in mid-August, 2024 when a cultural gathering was disrupted due to an attack by certain individuals. I witnessed this event firsthand. As I attempted to document the scene with my phone camera, my device was destroyed in the ensuing chaos. This confrontation deeply influenced me and became a key element in this body of work, where I integrated both the experience and the broken phone itself.

Broken Lens, installation view, Bengal Shilpalay, Dhaka, 2024

Broken Lens,  video still

The Days of Logout

Single-channel video and five pieces archival prints

Exhibition: Body and the Map, curated by Sharmillie Rahman

Bengal Shilpalay, Dhaka
2024

The event took place in 2024 during an internet blackout, which left me reliant on limited media sources—primarily newspapers and television—to stay informed. The constraints on communication during that time profoundly impacted my perspective. This work also draws on that experience, exploring the sense of isolation and dependency on specific sources for information amidst restricted access.

Days of logout, video still

Whimsy

Double-channel video with twelve pieces of archival prints, 2023

Duration of video: One minute five second

Solo Exhibition: Of Fragments

Curated by Sharmillie Rahman
Kalakendra, Lalmatia, Dhaka

 

‘Whimsy, a double channel video installation with prints to accompany, dramatizes the dismemberment of the human body recompensed by surfeit of concessional information disseminated by the mechanics of marketing and consumerism. Axing its primordial contacts with the world, the body is denuded of its vitality of movements and intentionality of actions, and eventually is reduced to the repetitive moves emulating that of a stringed puppet.'

- Sharmillie Rahman 

  

                                                                           

Whimsy, double-channel video with archival prints, each print size:11 X 8 in, solo exhibition 'Of Fragments'', Kalakendra, Dhaka, 2023, 

Photo courtesy: Sheik Nafi Hassan

Whimsy, archival prints, each print size:11 X 8 in

Whimsy, video still

Closed Door

Double-channel video with LED neon text and six pieces of archival prints (counter gaze of the video), 2023

Duration of video: Three minute thirty four second

Solo Exhibition: Of Fragments

Curated by Sharmillie Rahman
Kalakendra, Lalmatia, Dhaka

‘Palash watches from within the protective bounds of the walls the tumultuous storm raging outside, reminiscent of lives being whisked away, displaced by the wind of change. In contrast, the interior reverberates with images and sounds emanating from a screen, part of an odiously calculated performance gaslighting a populace into squeamish submission. Counteracting which is another irreverent act of scratching and deflating a balloon, echoing the futility of any subversive act under the regime of control and surveillance, thus ‘exposing’ our ‘edges’ of vulnerability.'

- Sharmillie Rahman 

  

Closed Door, double-channel video with LED neon text 

 

Closed Door six pieces of archival prints (counter gaze of the video), each print size: 10 X 6.5 in on paper, solo exhibition 'Of Fragments', Kalakendra, Dhaka, 2023 

Closed Door, double-channel video with LED neon text 

 Photo courtesy: Sheik Nafi Hassan

Closed Door, video still

Open Door

Ephemeral and mixed media installation, 2023
Materials: A Bangla to English dictionary, electronics fan, a microphone with sound, a single- channel video 
Solo Exhibition: Of Fragments
Curated by Sharmillie Rahman
Kalakendra, Lalmatia, Dhaka

Open Door, single- channel video 

Open Door, video still

 Installation view

As our lives continue to be governed by forces of nature or power, this dynamic is reflected in the physical installation that accompanies 'Open Door.' The ephemerality of the installation forms embodies the interplay between multiple power structures, highlighting how these forces shape our daily existence. By incorporating materials and motifs that represent phenomena connected to memory, the work evokes a profound sense of nostalgia and personal history. 

Installation view

Insomni - lucid sleep

Mixed-media installation, 2023
Bangla and English texts in LED neon, photograph (18 pieces),  single-channel video

Duration of video: One minute twenty  five second

Solo Exhibition: Of Fragments

Curated by Sharmillie Rahman
Kalakendra, Lalmatia, Dhaka

'The vast arsenal of embodied experientiality Palash calls into action emerge ‘re-materialized’ on photographic surfaces/screens in the form digitally encoded simulation. The virtual corporeality thus constructed becomes the stuff of a parallel reality which is based more on transposition or replacement of identity than on similarity or representation. In a spirit of suspension of disbelief, the audience is trans(tele)ported to the claustrophobic world of a series of digital photographs entitled “Insomni-Lucid Sleep” where the ‘characters’, partially defamiliarized with the help of props, stage a performative ‘re-enactment’ of straddling a threshold between light and dark, metaphorically indicating knowing without seeing, as the Bangla title roughly translates, “ I can see with eyes shut during sleeplessness”. Or, where the video projection of a night bulb turns into a lodestar, eternally failing to show any path of resolution to the meaningless absurdities of life.'

 - Sharmillie Rahman

Insomni - lucid sleep, LED neon installation, 6.5 X 35 in, 2023

Insomni - lucid sleep, LED neon installation,18 X 30 in, 2023

Insomni - lucid sleep, photograph (18 pieces), 12 X 9.5 in, 2023

Insomni - lucid sleep, props, 2023

Photo courtesy: Sheik Nafi Hassan

Insomni - lucid sleep, props, single-channel video, installation view,  2023

Insomni - lucid sleep, video still single-channel video, video still 2023