Exhibition
Artifacts from brick kiln
Fayza Haq
Bashir is a self-taught artist, who is having his solo at the Zoom Gallery of Alliance Francaise. Searching for a new medium he went on to collect remnants of bricks that have the shape of faces of animals and humans. It took him seven years to collect them from a nearby brick kiln. Mounting them and framing them in a sophisticated way, he has created images that are mind whirling. Moreover, the prices are not high, and this adds to the allure of the artifacts, which are conventional and at the same time modern.He has exhibited 17 pieces out of 500 pieces. To make a living, Bashir works in a 'khaddar' shop in Comilla where he designs shalwar-kameez and fatua for young women. One the pieces presents the eyes, ears and jaws of a tiger. Expression brings in a human face in which the mouth is open and you can easily make out the rest of the features such as the nose and ears. Roar again brings in the ferocity of a tiger with incredible details of the face as if it had been sculpted with precision. Face again brings in the features of a living being. The features have been included accurately although all this is the work of nature. The face of a tiger cub is also there to be found, with its soft rounded cheeks, perky ears and bright eyes. Kiss brings in an embracing couple where the face of one is seen whole and the other partially. Expression shows an old weary man. The seated camel is there in all its grandeur with its hump and folded legs, waiting to be ridden out to the desert in the distance. In Sharatbabu one sees the great poet as if some sculptor had studied his portrait and worked over the details of the facial features with care and precision. Rabindranath is similarly an uncanny depiction of the world famous poet, seen as a profile. The flowing hair and beard, the sharp features have all been registered. Lalon Shah brings in another remarkable portraiture complete with the ek-tara. The dinosaur with wings is also remarkable. Bashir says that the task of collecting the unusually shaped brick pieces is not easy. The old brick kiln from where he has collected most of the pieces is four kilometers away from his house. It is with the guidance of people like Bipul Shah, a cartoonist and Ferdousy Priobhashini, the artist in driftwood, that he managed to have this exhibition. Commenting on his work Ferdousy Pryobhashini says, "When Bashir came to me a year back, I encouraged him. I believe that in another 15 years his artifacts will be regarded as truly modern." Shishir Bahattacharya adds," From brick fragments Bashir has created something new in the form of animal and human faces. The support of his friends in the Institute of Fine Arts DU have helped him enormously. He has come a long way from spray painting for garments to doing something more creative."
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