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 and five seconds

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

বায়না বয়ান

পলাশ ভট্টাচার্য্য

‘বায়না’, সিরিজটি নভেম্বর ২০২৩, ঢাকাস্থ কলাকেন্দ্রে ‘অংশ বিশেষ’ শিরোনামে আমার একক প্রদর্শণীতে স্থান পেয়েছিলো। এই কর্মকান্ডে ছিল ১২টি ডিজিটাল কোলাজের আর্কাইভাল প্রিন্টের সিরিজ ও ডাবল চ্যানেল ভিডিও চিত্রের সমন্বয়ে একটি স্থাপনা। প্রাথমিকভাবে, বিপণন এবং ভোগবাদের যান্ত্রিকতায় প্রচারিত তথ্যের প্রতি যে আকর্ষণ যাপিত জীবনে লক্ষ্য করা যায় তাকে ঘিরেই এই দৃশ্যকল্পের পরিকল্পনা করা হয়। যদিও এইখানে শৈশবের স্মৃতির একটা প্রভাব আছে, পাশাপাশি বাস্তবতার সাথে ব্যক্তিগত বিভিন্ন আগ্রহের একটি সাংঘর্ষিক সম্পর্ককে তুলে আনা হয়েছে। এখানে ব্যক্তিগত ইচ্ছে বা আগ্রহগুলোর অপূর্ণতা, এবং জেদের প্রতিক্রিয়াকে বিভিন্ন ফর্মে তুলে আনা হয়েছে। শারীরিক অঙ্গভঙ্গি, সাধারণ বস্তু এবং বাংলা ও ইংরেজি বিভিন্ন অক্ষরের বিন্যাস এই কোলাজগুলোতে করা হয়েছে। এই কাজটি করার সময় আমি কিছু নাটকীয়তার বিন্যাসে মানবদেহ ও তার চলাফেরার প্রাণশক্তি এবং কার্যকলাপের ইচ্ছাশক্তি থেকে বঞ্চিত হওয়ার উত্তেজনা, পাশাপাশি, মানুষের অবদমিত ধারণার আকারগুলোকেও বিভিন্ন আঙ্গিকে দেখেছিলাম। পরিশেষে পুরো বিন্যাসকে মনে হচ্ছিলো দেহটি বোধ হয় পুতুলের মতো এবং এটি কোনো এক সুতোর টানে জীবনজুড়ে নিয়ন্ত্রিত হয়।

The work is planned around the attraction of our lives to the information disseminated by the mechanics of marketing and consumerism. However, childhood memories also influence this work, along with the conflicting relationships between various personal interests and reality. Various forms shape personal desires, imperfections, and reactions to stubbornness here. These collages use physical gestures, common objects, and are composed of Bengali and English letters. The dramatic arrangement of the work contains the excitement of being deprived of the vitality and willpower of the human body and its dynamics, as well as the multidimensional expression of human repressed thoughts. Ultimately, the entire arrangement seems to be that the body is like a puppet, which is being controlled throughout life by the pull of some invisible thread.

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