Art as dialogue: Inside 9+ONE at Edge Gallery

With soft, eerie music echoing through the spacious gallery, every wall was covered with canvases layered in a fascinating palette of colours, each etching its own story.

Currently on show at Gulshan's Edge Gallery, 9+ONE: Interdimensional Journeys Part II runs until 4 October, open daily from 10 am to 10 pm. While the title might suggest a link to science fiction, the exhibition in fact seeks to reconceptualise how we perceive societal issues.

Rooted in science, technology, and philosophy, the exhibition explores the multiple dimensions that a single theme or concept can contain. The "+ONE" refers to the 18 artists from the first part of the series who also feature here. Their work, transformed by time, reinforces the idea that "Art is never isolated: it is always in dialogue with what came before, layering meanings across exhibitions, years, and audiences."

The exhibition centres on nine artists whose practices span modern and contemporary forms, heritage and experiment. It brings together media including painting, sketching, woodcut on paper, experimental ceramics, and installation—opening new encounters with form and space.

Some of its central themes address capitalism, globalisation, war, and the decay of society. Yet instead of relying solely on paintings, the exhibition employs a wide range of styles and media, inviting viewers to examine the same issue from multiple perspectives. These works do not attempt to provide direct explanations; rather, they encourage reflection through intricacy and depth. The more you look, the more you see.

I did not want this exhibition to be plagued by a symmetrical composition, where the audience does not have enough breathing space when looking at the art. These pieces of art should not need to fight for the attention of the viewers, so each piece is accompanied by another work which has complementary colours or is in a different size, while also being cohesive with the storytelling.

Shobuj Sultan Anmon, Curator

One of the most striking installations, Stab in the Dark by Zihan Karim, combines music, CRT television, headphones, and stop-motion animation to break conventional media boundaries and tell a story that is intentionally ambiguous and evocative. Karim's art, it is said, often begins with fleeting gestures, ephemeral experiences, or fragments of architecture. His works blur the line between documentation and imagination, lived reality and speculative possibility.

As an experimental exhibition, it also posed a unique curatorial challenge for Shobuj Sultan Anmon.
"I did not want this exhibition to be plagued by a rigid, symmetrical composition, where the audience lacks breathing space when engaging with the art. These works should not compete for attention. Instead, each piece is paired with another using complementary colours or contrasting sizes, while still remaining cohesive within the storytelling," Anmon explained.

One of the exhibition's most distinctive features is its "art that speaks, if you listen" approach. Many works include QR codes that link to short voice recordings on the gallery's website, offering detailed insights into the pieces. This allows viewers to engage with the works at their own pace, deepening curiosity and personal interpretation.

TBS Picks

Critical Time by Md. Anisul Haque
Medium: Porcelain, Purple Clay & Stoneware Clay

The blending of clay, cloth and porcelain in this piece implores the audience to feel the strength and oppression that every child in a warzone is often subject to. It's easy to become numb seeing pictures of people being stripped of their human dignity, but his sculptures reek of the torture so strongly that you cannot simply walk it off.

Garniture by Tulsi Rani Das
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Her astonishingly incredible paintings of fabric and textile transform these into pieces of symbol that embody the history, identity and artistry of Bangladeshi women.

These garments function as storytelling for the multilayered, complex identities of women that do not get the voice they need in society. So, Tulsi uses saris to deliver that dialogue.

Paradox of Globalisation by Sadatuddin Ahmed Amil
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

The central focus across his works in this exhibition is on how the digital world has washed into our lives very deeply, in both good and bad ways.

Globalisation has paved the way for conspicuous consumption, where what we consume is becoming a direct reproduction of social trends. Even when we have more, less and less of it, it is a reflection of us.

This piece is intentionally made to be overwhelming and oversaturated, invigorating how social media is draining us out of our own lives little by little.