Wound – a drawing without color exhibition by Dilara Begum Jolly

26 Dec 2015 – 20 Jan 2016 at Kalakenda, Bangladesh 

Curated by Wakilur Rahman & Kehkasha Sabah

"We experience violence on a daily basis which embeds paranoia inside us. This paranoia stops us from helping others, stops us even from reacting. This collective inactivity is making the social structure insecure and also diminishing our feelings towards victims. Today we can see violence being accepted in every strata of our social milieu. Communication media, social community, entertainment and information, from the global arena to domestic life, are all accepting violence silently through the choice of language, sounds, images, gestures, even gossips and so on. It is as if we are conditioned by such a restrictive reality that it is fuming us into active and passive observers. Visual artists are not excluded from this milieu. Some artists, who are constantly living through and observing these situations, have worked and built a position on this. 'Celebrated violence!’ is an exhibition showing some Bangladeshi artists' works and their visual position concerning this issue. In 'Celebrated Violence -5 we are going to present 18 drawings (on paper, without color) by Dilara Begum Jolly titled 'Wound'.

In this series of her works, she chooses paper - a thick surface without texture, and with a sharp needle she opens the surface to express extreme painfulness but shows no blood or color. Here she uses the paper's delicacy to denote the human skin. Our skin is soft, extremely sensitive and very easy to hurt while simultaneously, it is the protector of our internal organs from external elements. Environmental harshness and unpleasant experiences of the body or violent incidents leave a mark on our skin, which mark is identified as 'Wound'. The violence Jolly experiences are visible and invisible, and as an artist she has no way to avoid the marks of the multifaceted violence of our society. 'Wound' is a marking of her internal, external, mental, and physical experiences and traumas. In this series, she highlights the inner journey as well as the harsh realities of violence with a precise, insightful mastery. In our understanding the 'Wounds' created by Jolly are a song of departure and mourning. This is why we selected her new series of works as the 5th edition for our curatorial series 'Celebrated violence!’ 

Curatorial note by Wakilur Rahman & Kehkasha Sabah

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