Untold Story: A step beyond in storytelling and mixed media

What I assumed to be an exhibition containing a series of paintings caught me off guard with the innovation that each piece utilised to tell stories that would be hard to convey in the same way with sketches and acrylic. It displayed fantastic contemporary pieces, but what makes these pieces special is the story of the artists. They weave their own intimate stories and vulnerabilities into each piece, allowing for the impact to echo and linger through every viewer slightly differently.

'Untold Story', running from 1 to 9 September at Alliance Française de Dhaka, is pulled together by a core group of seven artists with six guest artists, who have spent long periods of time developing unique ways of telling their stories in layers of mixed media. Every piece feels unique, as no two pieces are telling the same story or in the same way.

Most pieces are accompanied by an experimental book, made from fabric or paper, combining paintings, collages, stitchings, textiles, handwritings, poems. They force you to pause and take your time going through the art and stories the writer has crafted. The book leads you from the art to the artist, as you are made to feel like you are going through the writer's personal life; pictures of their families, memories, the life they have led. It's easy to feel a bit disoriented by it, and I believe that's the strongest aspect of the exhibition.

It can be so deeply personal that it detaches itself from an objective commentary of a regular exhibition into showcasing pieces that are about the artists themselves.

This concept is particularly highlighted by the work of Snulekha Chowdhury. Through her work, she shares her intense grief of when her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2024 against the backdrop of a nation succumbing to corruption. In such times, she could feel the memories of her mother, all the love, despair, loss and belonging merging into a feeling indescribable.

On one side, a small box containing more than dozens of medications for cancer patients, coded by colours on the cap, and yet it does nothing for the pain that suddenly weighs down on you, each medicine feeling like a countdown for a parent. On the other side of the piece, a book made from fabric, opening with young pictures of her mother, celebrating her life side by side with the rampage consuming her.

Alongside grief, several pieces shift the focus towards unbreakable cycles of love, connection and burdens that are passed from generation to generation. Sumana Akter's 'The Story Within Us' looks at motherhood, where a person's entire life almost overnight transforms to revolve around her children, but it is not portrayed in a way of stripping the individuality of a person, but from a perspective of getting to keep the intergenerational cycle of love going on.

It is a bond she describes as the one connection in life that never really fades, even as everything else around you changes or disappears. The book becomes a place to circle back to that one constant presence, almost like revisiting a memory that you already know by heart but still feel the need to hold on to.

However, the pieces also extend beyond just individual or collective consciousness. Rafia Mahjabeen's 'Panthakunja' becomes an acting commentary on the insatiable horror of urban planning that is often done at the expense of common people in the name of development.

It looks at a place that was once a refuge for people, plants and animals, before around 2,000 trees were cut down for an elevated expressway, through natural dyes, eco-printing and hand stitching. Layers of fabric, colour and detail bring together the trees, people and other forms of life that once shared it, asking what happens to these relationships when the city keeps making less and less room for nature.

TBS Picks:

In Search of My Home
Rituparna Saha

Probably, the most captivating piece in the entire 
exhibition. Accompanied by a book, Rituparna describes her experience with finding a sense of belongingness in places. The piece looks at home through memory and belonging, shaped by growing up in rented houses and constantly moving. Through textiles, photographs, drawings and hand-stitched flowers, the work holds on to fragments of places left behind. It asks whether home is really a place, or something we continue carrying within us.

Bari-r Tane
Mahmuda Siddika

Her work turns a train journey into a kinetic object. It invites you to turn handle rolls to push the landscape forward and view the vibrant grassland, rivers, paddy fields, forests and villages. Such a process escapes the restriction of confining art to a passive viewing experience.

The Tenderness of Impossible Things
Venessa Kaiser

This piece turns towards limerence, that fragile space where longing can become more real than reality itself. Through imagined futures, unfinished conversations and fantasies, the piece uses a very vivid colour palette to express the lust we have for our desires, so much so it can become blinding, as we hold on to feelings and build entire worlds around them.