Palash Bhattacharjee: The Days of Logout

Thursday, December 5, 2024

The Days of Logout

Single-channel video and archival prints
Exhibition: Body and the Map, curated by Sharmillie Rahman

Bengal Shilpalay, Dhaka
2024

Ongoing project

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

'Palash Bhattacharjee entered the scene armed with an array of performative arsenals. Alongside photo-video installations developed from his performances and site-specific installations, he inserted another crucial element, namely sound. From his early works based on photo and video installations in 2009 to that of his more recent near-absurd performances and video installations, he articulates the neural through the experiential. Since 2011, he set in motion a practice that forked into two divergent and also overlapping strands – video and performance. His single or multi-channel videos and performances are the result of his meditations on body's communion with spatial reality often set in a temporal framework. His reorganizes multiple approaches as he sets out to restore an event from life, which is at once overwhelming and abstract. Muted and distant in their articulation, his works seem to test the water at the edge. Still, Palash's 'reality' leaves no room for illusion.'

-New Media the locus of rebirth, Shahman Moishan with Sharmillie Rahman and Mustafa Zaman, page 36-37, 22th Issue, Depart Magazine, ISSN 2310-6832