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

Arrow

Single-channel video and photographs, 2023

Duration of video: five minute fifty-two second

Solo Exhibition: Of Fragments

Curated by Sharmillie Rahman
Kalakendra, Lalmatia, Dhaka

 

 

Single-channel video screening, Kalakendra, Dhaka

Counter gaze of the video, photographs (2 pieces), 33 X 24 in 2023

Arrow, an imaginative piece, mirrors society's tumultuous movement with anarchy, reacting to its ever-changing social and political landscape. With twists and turns, chaos reigns, giving birth to uproar, as if the very essence of anarchy is brought to life. Amidst this chaos, a performative act emerges—a symphony of noise giving birth to an uproar. It is a performance in front of the changing television screens, collectively with voice and soundscapes that evoke an absurd sensorial experience.

'Palash’s deep-rooted fear and sense of insecurity resurfaces with every single stroke drawn on the surface of the TV screen as a signification of negation. Contesting and fictionalizing the dynamics of simulation Palash posits an antithesis of absence, or in other words conjures up a presence; presence of all those who fell victim to various means of disappearance. This is “Arrow’’ in a nutshell.'                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -Sharmillie Rahman

                                                                                               

 Video still

Video still

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ID

LED neon and two-channel video installation with sound
19th Asian Art Biennale, National Art Gallery, Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka 
Materials: LED neon , red carpet, wooden frame and two TV

I developed a self-examined method for this work based on my everyday encounters with social and national identification and verification. Here, two words in Bengali 'দরকারি কাগজপত্র' and the words translated into English, 'Documents Required,'  are shown in the center of the wall in LED neon to show the tendency toward verification. The opposite of those texts is a red carpet on the floor, followed by two videos on two TV sets, both responding to the central texts, with one video showing typing letters and the other showing blurry fingerprints.

Photo Courtesy: Sheik Nafi Hassan

Video sample

Lesson

Performance 
Asian Art Biennale, Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka,1 December 2022
Materials: Microphone, Books, notebooks, pen, dice
Curated by Abdus Salam

Exhibition view: Documentation based book.

Photo Courtesy: Sheikh Nafi Hassan 

This performance was a nuanced response that stemmed from my lesson, experiences and emotions, expressed through immediate actions. The actions of this situation were conveyed using a combination of auditory and visual elements, integrating noise into the performance. The viewers were exposed to unconventional activities facilitated by high-frequency microphones, featuring institutional objects like books, notebooks, and pens associated with the text.

Performance at ShilpaKala Academy, Dhaka 

1 December 2022

Photo Courtesy: Shadman Sakib