Mixing memories with apprehension

Forring and my dream-2 (top), Deconstruction-9 (bottom left), Spectrum-4(bottom right)

Farhana has chosen vignettes from her contented childhood and placed the memories together like scattered collages. She has done them in dry-point in which etches are made with a needle on a metal sheet and then colour is laid on. The paper is then pressed on with rollers of the machine.

In Good dream-1 a teenaged girl has leaves growing on her head instead of hair. In another section of the print we see the young woman looking at herself in a mirror. At one side is a stylised figure , dancing with joie de vivre. Fragments of letters, an owl, paper birds and boats fill up the rest of the space along with images of ducks. The work is in sepia and gray. Good dreams-2 depicts the feelings of free space that one gets underwater. Tadpoles, feathers, bugs, and underwater plants are brought in. The picture is depicted in layers of complementary colours .

Spectrum-4 contains a posed picture with her parents, a depiction of the harmonium of her childhood days, a winter blossom, a worn out comb, a fishnet with little fries, a ladybird, a dragonfly, an ant and birds are all combined in a single harmonious message of nostalgia. A kite, and unknown path have also been brought in. The artist's portrait is also included in the interweaving tale of bliss. The images, done in rectangle pieces have been put together. Spectrum 3 contains similar forms of a dragonfly, a paper flower, the shadows of a tree, and bottles of different sizes. Flowers, fragments of pages of poetry are also included. A large depiction of a dragonfly includes a presentation of two seated lovers, paper boats, mushrooms and a portrait of the artist. This print too appears like some dream sequence in green, black, gray and sepia.

Tariq Julfiqer has a figure that is swimming in frames of brown and gray. This is a pterodactyls of the past that roamed the earth. There is then a floating figure of a man with more such figures, done on a smaller scale, surrounding it in the past. "We are floating like water lilies on the stream of life. I try to combine the abstract with the reality," says Julfiqer

Deconstruction 11 has a man with huge wings of an insect floating willy-nilly through greenish gray water. Elongated figures of more humans in diminutive sizes floating in a dazed manner form the slimy green backdrop.

In another picture by Julfiqer we see a figure of a hungry man with a crow above him. In another section of the print are fledgling birds in a nest. In another print we see the figure of a man with flowers in one hand and a crow in the other, which also speaks of struggle and strife.

As printmaking is rare in Bangladesh, the two artists hope to popularise it with their work.