Bangladeshi artist couple Nabil Rahman and Ayesha Sultanas exhibition in Thiruvananthapuram is an ode to transience

Bangladeshi artist couple Ayesha Sultana and Nabil Rahman stayed at an outdated home at Kesavadasapuram in Thiruvananthapuram for seven weeks for an artwork residency programme. During that point they found possessions left behind by the previous residents of the home. The couple, deeply impacted by these objects, determined to pay homage to their keep within the metropolis with an artwork exhibition, with works ready with supplies discovered on the home.

This is the story behind Footnotes, at present on at Neighbour Gallery. The showcase was inaugurated on September 26 and incorporates 38 works — 22 by Nabil and 16 by Ayesha. The works make use of all kinds of media, together with slabs of granite, handmade paper, outdated encyclopedia sheets, inscribed stones, papier-mâché, and silicone, amongst others.

Nabil’s Cartilage, a sequence of encyclopedia pages with summary shapes made by ink spills over it, is a commentary on tradition and society, say the artists. “Languages include their very own set of nuances surrounding their origins. And whoever controls language controls society’s narratives,” he explains. The artist makes an attempt to make clear how data is disseminated in a society and the way it’s managed. “My course of has been to create distance between a person entity and its context, with out saying a lot,” says Nabil, whose works have been proven on the Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Bellas Artes Projects, Manila (Philippines), and so forth. He has additionally labored as a contract journalist.

In a piece titled, Afterimages, he additional removes the pictorial parts on paper and works solely with ink spills of purple and blue. He identifies this sequence of works as a transfer away from textual content and observing “abstractions from a distance. It is extra about being quite than making an attempt to assume your method by way of to a which means.”

“Visually, it’s about eliminating the textual content. I don’t wish to say something immediately; artwork is supposed to evoke thought or an emotion,” says the artist, who moved to the US when he was 10 years outdated.

Nabil shows a number of works on handmade paper. In two works titled Postulate, he builds a sequence of numeric sequences organized one under the opposite. “Numbers or phrases are concrete, however through the use of them, you create abstractions quite than concrete concepts made with repetition and restructuring. It represents how issues are rewritten, and we develop up realising what we knew earlier than was not true.”

His different works embody Traces, that are ink impressions of discovered objects embossed on handmade paper; Aftermath, a slab of granite discovered by Nabil with blade marks on it, representing patterns or imprints which can’t be replicated; stone inscriptions, and so forth.

Ayesha’s work makes an attempt to hint the physique by way of impressions and gestures, whereas drawing consideration to the absence of a physique, reminding everybody of the transient nature of life.

Her work Threshold is a pair of suspended legs made from papier-mâché hanging down the partitions of the gallery. The piece was made by casting her personal legs with the medium and utilizing them to create an impression of a physique on the gallery, says Ayesha, whose works have been displayed on the Riyadh Art Week and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, amongst others.

“The first time I visited the gallery, I had the feeling of a presence there. I imagined a full feminine physique on this area, however then, whereas I started getting ready for the present, we determined to decide on the decrease physique to merely counsel a presence,” says the artist.

Her work Gestures is a sequence of 12 work of summary concepts, which she completed throughout her interval of residency. Ayesha takes an impressionist method in utilizing shapes and figures to convey her feelings.

“My work relies on sourcing materials and reworking it completely into one thing else. It’s how I put myself on the market or talk with the world,” she says.

Instinct is an internet 91 centimeters in diameter, made with silver, wooden, and nylon. Ayesha says, “The net suggests various things. Other artists have additionally labored with utilizing the net, the spider as some form of symbolic illustration. Nature is discovered lots in my work.”

Her different works embody Fold, an impression of a human physique made on Silicone; and Chords, made utilizing copper medium.