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Feature 17

DT
tuesday, February 14, 2017

Abir Shome:
'I love America, but America hates me'
infuriated and dismissed the work LL6, I was surprised to see how
as a stunt. I presume a similar many younger Banani-bashis
reaction (translated into Bengali cannot read Bangla), a choice to
as stuntbaji) sometimes greets not use Bangla carries long-term
Abirs work. Anticipating that consequences.
possibility, the text here is defiant: Abir comes out of a group of
This is art too! And guess what its surrealist artists who graduated
100 years old (this is the cente- from Dhaka Universitys Charu
nary of the original Duchamp), and Kala department. They studied tra-
I met R Mutt. He is from Bangla- ditional forms there (painting for
desh (R Mutt was Duchamps faux Abir, sculpture for Rafiqul Shuvo,
signature on the urinal). graphic design for Marzia Farzana,
In an upper corner is the poster crafts for Ronni Ahmmed, and
that grabbed my attention and printmaking for Mustafa Zaman),
brought me to Beuys of 1974. Abir but were also influenced by Surre-
has written I love America but alism, Dada, and the Situationist
America hates me, bringing us International. The decade-long
back to the reality that today, if he demand to add photography, vid-
tried to carry out Beuys inter- eo, performance, and mixed media
vention, he would not be allowed to the Charu Kala syllabus is still in
to land in New York. His Bangla- limbo, and without these additions
deshi passport, brown skin, and the institute was not able to fulfil
presumed danger would render their needs. Yet that same Charu
him permanently outside. At the Kala, which also has Shomoy artist
top of the wall are a grid of photo- collective alumni as professors,
graphs of Abir, his hands covering did give them a base from which
his face, running away from the to reach out for other influences.
surveillance drones. Mustafa Zaman cites a late 1980s
In my earlier review of Razib to early 1990s period of intense ex-
Datta (Ramiz was not seen perimentation by this core group
before 1757, Depart), I noted the of Charu Kala students.
Installation images: Naeem Mohaiemen frenzied energy and density of Bangladesh had a jagged art
reference in Razibs Bangla prose, trajectory in the five decades since
n Naeem Mohaiemen which brought environmental pol- ments to take away multiplicity of and mourned the concrete shoes independence, and many move-

I
itics to the centre when it entered readings. of converted language when we ments and experiments remain
n 1974, German artist Joseph a coalition German government in In the midst of this busy grid use English. But an exception undocumented, and linkages have
Beuys staged his famous the 1990s. of works are black and white has to be made for Abir Shome, not been made. Depart maga-
action intervention, I like Would Beuys be able to stage photographs of a toilet, and then who has said to critics that using zine, under Mustafa Zaman (an
America and America likes his action today, or would he be closeups of the posters on its English (including words out of innovative artist who is also an art
me. Flying into New York, he was turned away at the airport as a walls. Each carries a slogan, re- sequence, in satirical mimicry) is critic, filling a gap in local infra-
wrapped in a felt blanket and subversive? More to my point, ferring back to Marcel Duchamps part of his politics (one text in this structure), has catalogued these
taken to a room with a coyote. The what would JFK airport officers say temple-breaking moment of 1917, new piece says Hard English is trends, and some of these artists
wrapping ensured that his feet to Abir Shome, if he arrived from when he brought a porcelain urinal everywhere). However, I am still have been highlighted in local
never touched American soil; the Dhaka with his latest work? Would into the gallery, and labelled it waiting, and excited, to see what group shows over the last decade
project was a protest against the he be labelled a brown subversive Fountain. Back then, the avant happens when Abir starts using curated by Rafiqul Shuvo (OGC-
Vietnam war and the hegemony of (presumed Muslim) and turned garde was elated at this interven- Bangla more intensely. In a time JM), Ebadur Rahman (Country of
American art. Audiences worried away? Would immigration make tion that proposed everyone was of evisceration of our language Rising Sadness), Shehzad Chowd-
that the coyote may attack Beuys a distinction based on surname an artist, and everything was art. (during my 2015 project Baksho hury (Latitude Longitude), Britto
(a degree of physical risk was a Shome, or would Muslim as an But another section was initially Rohoshyo, Chobi Tumi Kar? at Arts Trust, and others. Shahman
hallmark of many artist actions of all-purpose container for other Moishan is currently doing a
that period, for example in Chris prevail? As poet Sham e-ali-Nay- long-form research on new media
Burdins project dragging himself eem said to me recently, Islamo- trends within Bangladeshi visual
through glass shards). But it only phobes dont care how pious you arts for Depart. These are overdue
urinated on copies of the Wall are. They dont even care if you are efforts, to properly place and parse
Street Journal in the room. Muslim. these new forms and artists. Abirs
The coyote was a spiritual At Chobi Mela IX (Bangladesh father, Biren Shome produced a
figure for Native Americans, and Shilpakala Academy), Abir Shome specific form of abstract paint-
only with the arrival of European has brought together a melange ing in response to the tumult of
settlers did it become hunted. This of text based works that may be the 1960s and 1970s, just as Abir
sacred animals action against a opaque to the impatient visitor. produces intuitive interventions
newspaper that was the voice of Audiences have taken selfies in and irreverent videos responding
the military industrial complex front of his row of empty frames to this age of unending wars. The
was the apropos completion of with price tags; the colour splashes work deserves to be understood
Beuys circle of critique. The like of the tags were the symmetrical through iterative conversations, a
in the title, while ironic, also hint- pretty they wanted. Others have systematic art history, and a new
ed at the possibility of redemption, loudly rung his two bells, but not arts curriculum that builds viewers
through acknowledgement and paused to read the text above. On as well as artists.
dismantling of American hegem- silver foil, Imagine there is no Naeem Mohaiemen uses
ony from within. Back in Germa- statement. Only Lorem ipsum... films, essays, and mixed media
ny, Beuys went on to become a takes a dig at the tendency for installations to trace Bangladesh
co-founder of the Green Party, over-explanatory artist state- history since 1971. l

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