‘Us Women’ portrays the innate pleas of women

At a time when appreciation towards women is capitalised towards consumerism, it would not have been unusual to cascade an exhibition meant for women with stereotypical tropes. Thankfully, 'Us Women' mostly delivers, facilitating the diversity of representation of women of all walks of life, in the exhibition. Bishwajit Goswami and Gulshan Hossain deserve praise curating the exhibition, which inaugurated on March 8 at EMK Centre, Dhanmondi.

Among 500 artworks from all over the country, 40 paintings were selected, many of which highlighted aspects such as child abuse, sexuality, queer politics, safety, security, virginity, domination, harassment, domesticity, sexism, identity – all roadblocks in being a woman in this day and age.

Photos: Piyas Biswas

The exhibit further consists of visual art pieces -- some celebrating feminine beauty, and others depicting female sources of agony, all painted with blotches of memory and grates of fiction. While there is an emotional dissonance and disharmony created from the disparate voices, it is heartening to know that such spaces, for women to be women, exist.

Photos: Piyas Biswas

Us Women is fantastic in both concept and execution. It is a picturesque depiction of worlds colliding, threading truth and beauty. Whether it has done justice to the innate pleas of a woman is up to the perception of the viewers. The exhibition is open till March 19.