Atlas of Dissent: A haunting reminder of Bengal’s colonial history
Atlas of Dissent is open to all from 4 PM – 8 PM (except Tuesdays), at Bengal Shilpalay, until Saturday, 8 April
Imagine if you could walk into a piece of art and be surrounded by its reality. This is exactly what artist Dhali Al Mamoon accomplishes in his latest exhibition 'Atlas of Dissent'. Composed of paintings, animations, sculptures and installations; the artworks play to one's sight and hearing; and the feelings they inspire are both haunting and captivating.
Mamoon has been known to investigate Bengal's colonial history in his works, and this show is the latest instalment in his artistic exploration. He boldly asks – how connected is our system of education and the language to our own history?
Mamoon's work is monumental; the lines between where one artwork ends and where the other begins are blurred. But the show speaks to its visitors as a whole, and it does so very clearly. His works explore the impact of Bengal's colonial past; particularly the trauma inflicted by the British colonists on the land and its people, and how it continues to shape our social systems and collective memory.
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The artist constructs a complex, sensory and symbolic experience. As soon as you walk in, you are met with a path to Bengal, where dogs, with the head of British lords, are marking their territory.
Paintings make extensive use of natural materials such as tea, indigo, oil, and cloves. These resources replaced staple crops across the region, resulting in farmers' revolt and massacre of peasants in the mid-nineteenth-century.
Skulls are hung on walls. Upon closer inspection you will see various quintessential jamdani designs and the seal of the East India Company engraved on them.
There are sculptures of crowns made from tea, indigo dye, spices, fabrics, threads and resin.
The show reminds you of a wounded past, and makes you understand how it has shaped your own present.
"My goal is to scrutinise the act of re-reading history as well as the language of art that forms the basis of my art education and practice. I have experimented with ways of re-reading the language of the past and transforming it in relation to a new reality," said Mamoon.
"These thoughts run parallel, both at the conscious and unconscious levels. Most of the references embedded in the drawings and paintings could be read as conscious manipulation, by imbricating truth upon truth and reality upon reality. In terms of aesthetics, there is no particular focus or imposition of forms. If there are any traces of the sort, they appear toeing the line of my education, not as an outcome of any conscious effort."
"I steered clear of any attempts toward conformity. Mainly, I tried to keep in mind the rhizomatic structure which has no beginning nor end," he added.
Mamoon was born in Chandpur, Bangladesh, in 1958. After acquiring a master's degree from University of Chittagong, he began his career in teaching at the Fine Arts department. He pursued further studies as a DAAD fellow in Germany during 1993-94.
Most of the paintings were painted on round surfaces, imitating the process of making nakshikanthas, as well as symbolising how women sit in a circular formation and work on stitching their quilts, by working their way in from the edges.
The paintings depict the Battle of Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1768). These works were also converted into animations, accompanied by low haunting sounds of war, in separate dark enclosures.
During colonial rule, people of this region, particularly from the lower echelons, used to create cut-out figures from palm leaves, modelling these into colonial soldiers, which in essence was an expression of resistance. The silence from the show is periodically broken by the sound of twirling these, but much larger, soldier installations. The attires, ornaments and arms that accessorise this exhibit are presented as re-imagined elements from a close reading of colonial history.
"My childhood memories are also associated with the palm-leaf soldier. My visits to carnivals accompanied by my father, would more often than not land me with this toy. It was the very performative quality of the toy which used to attract me as a child. Now, the wooden lord is dangling from its mount as a kinetic sculpture. Here, sound functions as a clue or reference. By drawing on the auditory, it aims to make possible a sensorial experience," he explained.
Organised by Bengal Foundation, Atlas of Dissent is open to all from 4 PM – 8 PM, at Bengal Shilpalay, until Saturday, 8 April.
