A solo ad exhibition by Razib Datta
Exhibition Date: 20 Nov - 10 Dec, 2015,
Kalakendra, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Curated by: Wakilur Rahman & Kehkasha Sabah
`Absurdist’ movement centered on the idea that Iife is irrational, illogical. incongruous, and without reason in today's uncertain world. To understand it, one must understand the linguistic and culturally constructed origins of the term 'Absurd' on their living time. 'How do I rent a Planet' is a dialog pointing to the 'Absurd' thinking of a human existence and specifically here as an exhibition it denotes Razib Datta’s recent aft works.
Razib Datta is a young artist who recently post graduated in Fine Arts from Chittagong university. His created absurd visuals mostly borrowed from ready-made image sources, like -web, poster, newspaper, signboards, books, magazine advertisements etc. He used a wide range of collected images of famous and infamous persons and plots and then questioned their aesthetics and rationality with an anti-aesthetical agenda by assembling nonsense elements, images, texts, hand drawings, CG manipulation or by doing collages. As if he does it intentionally to establish a new meaning or make them void of any true meaning and leave these images to the viewers’ interpretation.
Most of his de-objectified images have emerged texts, text- as a monolog or mockery or satire poetical lines without referential elements of that image. Every so often in these works he have two or three irrational split personality and these created irrationalities are thematically linked by a sense of desperation and distaste with life. For this, his texts become subversive and helps him to break an image’s rationality too. It could be interestingly seen why Razib choose a readymade image and why he wants to re-define its meaning by manipulating another image or texts on it? Maybe for him it's a form of rebellion against the inevitable pressures of the society and in this image making process Razib functioned as an outsider and observer chronicling his own distaste with existence as well as the distaste of others.
His choosing of spontaneous materials and production process clearly tell us - he has an obsession for image making, which is very important aspect for us to choose his works. And another interesting point is That – Razib’s re-defined images yet to explore by himself, maybe still they could be a fruit of his un-conscious mind or could be only a byproduct of his aesthetical choice, but consciously or unconsciously some of his images powerfully communicate us to the trajectory of a poetic journey of our daily life in the recent cultural & socio-political ludicrousness, which could be very thought provocative for conscious people of our society.
-Curatorial note by Kehkasha Sabah,