You are cordially invited to the launch of the exhibition ‘Death Sentence’ curated by Jewel A Rob, under the Bengal Foundation’s Subir Choudhury Curatorial Practice Grant. Works by five artists Anisuzzaman Sohel, Emran Sohel, Promotesh Das Pulak, Najmun Nahar Keya and Shimul Datta, will be featured in the show. Mr. Francois Grosjean, Director of Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, has kindly agreed to open the exhibition at 4.30 PM on Thursday 15 February 2024, at Bengal Shilpalay, Level 1, Quamrul Hassan Exhibition Hall. Mr. Mustafa Zaman, artist and art-writer will be present on the occasion as the Special Guest.

Subir Choudhury Curatorial Practice Grant Exhibition
15 Feb – 30 Mar 2024
4 – 8 PM except on Sundays
Bengal Shilpalay . Level 1, House 42 . road 27
Shekh Kamal Sarani . Dhanmondi . Dhaka 1209

Artists
Anisuzzaman Sohel
Emran Sohel
Promotesh Das Pulak
Najmun Nahar Keya
Shimul Datta

The Death Sentence project is derived from a study of the process of war and killing. Over the ages, people have engaged in warfare, death and destruction for a multitude of reasons ranging from the personal to the socio-political-ideological, as well as civil and military affairs, and ideas of power, nationhood, ethnicity and statehood, among others. New laws, rules and regulations, policies, have evolved along with new methods of killing. The leap in refinement of weapons from the Stone Age to the modern day went hand in hand with the advancement of scientific, engineering and technological knowledge and skills. Artistic ability, creativity and imaginative skill associated with the design of weapons did not lag behind either. Death and aesthetics seem to coexist in this regard, in a macabre inverse link.  The cross, brazen bulls, or the rat torture box are all instruments designed to carry out the death penalty. They were widely used by conquerors and power-wielders of almost every denomination, notwithstanding pirates with their exquisitely crafted firearms, handguns, or daggers. Later, humans devised lethal injections, handguns, gas chambers, electric shock chairs, nuclear bombs, grenades, and missiles. Technology made it possible to design smarter and sleeker tanks, ammunition, armaments, ships, copters, and bombers. The conjunct role of art in the creation of special instruments for execution, death and destruction, has been repeatedly critiqued. Such instruments have been used to establish dominant positions, demonstrate power, and uphold dogmas, and occasionally, also used to expand artistic practice.

This exhibition will try to present the argument that rather than being an artistic endeavour intended to offer delight to humanity, art has also, on occasion, been used, either wilfully or unintentionally, to aid in killing.

The show is a window into the thoughts of five contemporary artists. The questions that have surfaced are – to what degree are designers and artists affected by cruelty and inhumanity? In what ways does it give? What role do the war machine industry and complex diplomatic strategies, play in the contemporary world? Are our emotional centres gradually becoming numb?

Jewel A. Rob
Curator

বিভিন্ন কালে মানুষ যেভাবে যুদ্ধ, হত্যা ও ধ্বংসে মেতে উঠেছে, ‘ডেথ সেনটেন্স’ প্রকল্পের মূল ভাবনা তৈরি হয়েছে তা নিবিড় পর্যবেক্ষণের মধ্য দিয়ে। ব্যক্তি-দল-রাষ্ট্র-সমাজ ও আদর্শের ওপর ভর করে আদিকাল থেকে মানুষ হত্যা ও ধ্বংসে লিপ্ত। এতে ইন্ধন জুগিয়েছে গোত্র ও জাতি-পরিচয়ের সংঘাত, আদর্শিক লড়াই ও ক্ষমতার তীব্র লিপ্সা। সহযোগ হিসেবে প্রণীত হয়েছে ধ্বংসযজ্ঞ আরও সুচারুভাবে পরিচালনার উপযোগী নানা তত্ত্ব ও নীতিমালা। প্রস্তরযুগ থেকে বর্তমান সময় পর্যন্ত প্রযুক্তি ও বিজ্ঞানের অগ্রগতি এবং প্রসারকে কাজে লাগিয়ে বিবর্তিত হয়েছে মারণাস্ত্র ও হাতিয়ার।  এসব বিবর্তন  শুধু মারণাস্ত্রের কার্যকারিতাকে উন্নত করেনি, একই সঙ্গে তার কাঠামোগত সৌন্দর্য ও নান্দনিক আবেদনকে নতুন মাত্রা দিয়েছে। ফলে শোভা ও অশুভর এক ভয়াবহ সংমিশ্রণ ঘটেছে। এমনটা লক্ষ করা যায়, সাধারণ দুর্বৃত্তের মনোহারি নকশার ছোরা থেকে শুরু করে সমকালের রুচি ও ভঙ্গিমার লীলায়িত প্রকাশসম্পন্ন মারণাস্ত্রে।

পৃথিবীজুড়ে প্রায় সকল গোত্র ও বর্ণের মানুষ নির্বিচারে এসব প্রাণঘাতী অস্ত্র ব্যবহার করেছে নিজেদের লক্ষ অর্জনে ও আধিপত্য বিস্তারে। পরবর্তীকালে জীবন-নাশক ইনজেকশন, হ্যান্ডগান, গ্রেনেড, মিসাইল, গ্যাসচেম্বার, পরমাণু বোমা, ইলেকট্রিক চেয়ারের মতো আরও কার্যকর ও ভয়ঙ্কর উদ্ভাবন মানুষের এই উদগ্র আকাঙ্ক্ষাকে পরিতৃপ্ত করেছে।

উন্নত প্রযুক্তির হাত ধরে আরও আকর্ষণীয়, চৌকস ও দৃষ্টিনন্দন ট্যাংক, বোমারু বিমান ও কপ্টার নির্মাণ করা সম্ভব হয়েছে। এসব মারণযন্ত্রের নিপুণ অবয়ব সৃষ্টির পেছনে দৃশ্যকলাশিল্পের ভূমিকা অকিঞ্চিৎকর ছিল না। বরং কখনো কখনো তা শিল্পীর চর্চা এবং বোধকে শাণিত ও অগ্রগামী করেছে।

প্রশ্ন হলো, দৃশ্যশিল্পকলার দায় কি মানুষের মনকে গভীরভাবে আলোড়িত ও বিমুগ্ধ করা, নাকি ইচ্ছাকৃত না অনিচ্ছাকৃতভাবে হানাহানি ও হত্যার দোসর হওয়া? এ-নিয়ে সমসাময়িককালের চিন্তাশীল পাঁচজন শিল্পী কী ভাবছেন তা-ই আমরা বর্তমান প্রদর্শনীতে খতিয়ে দেখতে চেয়েছি। অমানবিকতা ও নির্মমতা একজন শিল্পীকে কতটা ব্যথিত করে এবং করলেও তার প্রকাশভঙ্গি কিরূপ? বর্তমান বিশ্বের কূট রাজনীতি এবং তার সঙ্গে ওতপ্রোতভাবে জড়িয়ে থাকা যুদ্ধ-অর্থনীতি কীভাবে শিল্পীর চিন্তা-চেতনাকে আলোড়িত করে? আমাদের সংবেদ কি ক্রমশ অসাড় হয়ে পড়ছে? এমন প্রশ্নের উদ্রেক করে এই প্রদর্শনী।

– জুয়েল এ রব

Anisuzzaman Sohel delves on the alienation of the individual, the yearning for nature, and the overwhelming power of entrenched systems. Grim, often morbid, subjects in Sohel’s artworks comprise weapons, (self) mutilations and skulls of various types and shapes but the viewer is not treated with the cliched dramatic renditions usually associated with these motives. Far from the tattoo shop aesthetics, the lines in Sohel’s drawings are clear, and the finishing of his objects impeccable. The polished appearance of installations challenges the immediate sense of repulsion that their subjects trigger. In this discrepancy lies the striking, powerful paradox of the artist’s research; an apparent contradiction that adds poignancy to his oeuvre. Sohel graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka, in 1998. He won the Aminul Islam Young Artist Award in 2013. His works have been widely exhibited.

Emran Sohel is a multidisciplinary art practitioner whose work springs from his interpretations of local and global contexts of modernity, postmodernity, and all other contemporary conditions that defy categorization. His focus is on how time, spaces, shapes, materials, forms, and political, cultural, and social behaviour dominate one’s feelings. also operates from within the space between natural and manmade space, personal and social times, while taking into account the secret lives of plants and objects. Emran is also focused on performance and public art, where he believes performance art has become a neo-platform for critical social and cultural practice. He has explored several ways of expression through painting, assemblage, sculptural installations, performance, interactive projects, and others. Sohel completed his BFA and MFA in Drawing and Painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan.  He is one of the founder members of Daagi Art Garage, an artist collective formed in 2013.

Promotesh Das Pulak Born 1980, Pulak completed his MFA in 2004 from the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. He likes to incorporate other media such as painting, video, image manipulation, photography, and installation, in his work. Pulak is interested in the duality that lies between the organic natural elements and combat equipment, which suggest the betrayal of innocence and beauty. Most of his sculpture installations are large-scale war equipment which are assembled using traditional craft materials. Recently, he has added motion to his installation. In video and image manipulation works, the artist incorporates himself within the frame. Pulak works have been shown internationally. He was represented in the Bangladesh pavilion at the 54th Venice biennale in 2011 and nominated as an emerging artist in sculpture at the Prudential Eye Awards in 2016. Pulak was shortlisted for the Samdani Art Awards at Dhaka Art Summit in 2012 and 2014, and received a fellowship from Aminul Islam Trust in 2007. He is currently an artist fellow at Harvard University’s Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute.
The artist lives and works in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 Najmun Nahar (Keya) completed her MFA from Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka, and the Tokyo University of the Arts. Central to her practice is the relationship between human behavior and society. Her years spent in Tokyo, on the Monbukagakusho Japanese government scholarship, left a deep mark on her work. The experience of being an immigrant in a country not known to welcome immigrants, brought out in her a talent of finding beauty, even when it is buried deep. An underlying thread within Keya’s works is the relationship between her personal memories and present experience of living in Dhaka. Using the Japanese techniques and concept of wabi-sabi, and kintsugi, Keya draws on her memories of old Dhaka and then gives them a new life.
Besides drawing and painting Keya likes to work in video, animation, and print making etc. Her works have been exhibited in many countries. Keya participated in an artist residency programmes in Nepal and South Korea. She received a fellowship from the Aminul Islam Trust (2006-2007) and won the Grand award in the Berger Young Painters Exhibition (2010). Keya has been working with Britto Arts Trust, the first non-profit artist-run organization in Bangladesh, since 2008. In 2018 she won the Charles Wallace professional visit fellowship, UK and Honourable mention award in 18th Asian art biennale. Keya is currently teaching at the Jagannath University in Dhaka. She is currently an artist fellow at Harvard University’s Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute.

Shimul Datta (Mymensingh, 1985) is a visual artist who lives and works in Dhaka. He completed his BFA and MFA (2009) in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. Shimul’s works have been widely exhibited. He participated in several residencies including the Sandwich Inc. kyoto, Japan, Tokyo Wonder Site. Shimul Datta likes to work with painting, video and other digital media as well. In 2018 Datta received Honorable Mention at the 4th National Sculpture Exhibition. He is one of the members of Britto Arts trust.

Abdur Rob Jewel aka Jewel A Rob is a practicing visual artist and independent curator based on Dhaka. He received an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. Rob likes to experiment with a variety of materials, processes and mediums such as drawing, painting, video, image manipulation, photograohy, Installation and performance art.
Rob depicts personal experience in his work, with reference to socio-economic-political crisis, genocide and movements. His work has been widely exhibited. He participated in various community based projects with Britto Arts Trust, Crack International Art camp, Imago Mundi, Bengal Foundation and Samdani Art Foundation. Jewel exhibited his Live Art in KIPAF16, HH Art space, NPAF17, Venice International Performance Art Week, EE, Asian Art Biennale, BPAW, Expedition Camp and also joined a research projects in Documenta-14 and Muenster Sculpture Project. His first curator-in-residency program was at ASSN, ACC at Gwangju, Korea, in 2018. Rob received the Bengal Foundation’s ‘Subir Chowdhury Curatorial Practice Grant’ in 2018, for his project Death Sentence, which is based on methods, history, mechanisms and techniques of warfare and its co-relation with art. He is the founder of bGac & CAN. Jewel is a member of Britto Arts Trust and a Co-founder of Back Art.