In praise of Sufia Kamal

Twilight Magic

I dealt with her meetings with Begum Rokeya, Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, and Gandhi. In her meeting with Begum Rokeya I used yellow, black, green and brown. I depicted her as coming from the dark to the light while a parallel female figure to the right breaks through the bars and bindings to reach out for education. There is the portrait of Sufia Kamal and a collage in the middle."

"Moving on to the depiction of how she was the first woman in the subcontinent to ride an airplane, which led to some controversy at her time, I've used toy planes and have used some of the lines from the poem that she wrote after this experience. There are orange and blue splashes, touched with gray and blue. The subjects wearing of white sari with a narrow border has been heightened in all the paintings. Just as women were treated like toys at that time so the airplane is depicted as a toy too."

In two other small portraits, Fareha brought in the subject of women being raped and burnt with acid. "Sufia Kamal had said 'Highlight the rapist and not the person raped' and this is what I have done by depicting the rapist in the left with green, yellow ochre and blue strokes. The woman's pain has been depicted with the red and blue strokes. The acid victim is depicted in the other painting as once enjoying herself and then turning suddenly into a victim, situation from which there is no escape in the form of adequate repair of the face. This has been done in splashes of purple, blue and strokes of brown. Sufia Kamal's portraits have been included in miniature in order to stress the role that she has played in women's emancipation. I have not used the subject's portrait in all the paintings in order to avoid monotony. In another painting I've collage from all over the world to drive home the fact that women in Bangladesh today have a wider outlook of life."

She adds, "The theme of rape and torture by acid has been continued in other paintings. The black shadows heighten the effect of fear and morbidity. Here I've changed the angle of the pictures to bring in variation and the figures are to be seen diagonally. Gray, brown and orange bring in a peaceful which is shortly destroyed the cruel schemes of destructive elements of our society. The pretty landscape and the inclusion of the gossiping friends bring in the beautiful past where there was no fear or destruction."

Fareha continues, "Sufia Kamal was very fond of animals and birds and I've shown this in a collage where a picture from a magazine depicts her petting two cats, lying on a bed. Her love of pigeons has been presented in the same painting in my own way. The purple and blue simple strokes at the back are to offset the subject. I've tried to present my themes with the simples of strokes and colours."

She adds, "When Gandhiji came to Barisal, Muslim women didn't go for protest marches, but she donned Hindu garbs, put a red mark on her forehead, and being encouraged by her husband, met Gandhiji, a moment that I've portrayed in my next work. Her portrait and a collage with the great Indian leader have been included in the composition. The brown, black, yellow and beige strokes here are to represent Begum Sufia's old memories of days gone by."

Fareha adds, "Nasiruddin, a famous editor of 'Shaukat' had helped Sufia Kamal a lot in encouraging her when her husband had died and she was going through a dark phase in life. At that time she was driven out of her house too. This I've depicted in my painting which includes a collage. Sufia Kamal is represented by the woman wearing a dark purple sari while her body is done with pink and blue to stress on the dark days that she was passing through. At the side are washes of purple, blue and peach. I've used a lot of white in many of the paintings in order to lend space and allow the viewer to think and drink in the message."

"Another painting," Fareha elaborates, "brings in the late 60s when USA was trying to dominate Bangladesh. I tried to express the wave of that period by bringing in certain elements of the Statue of Liberty, fragments of the American flag while Sufia Kamal is shown as pondering over the situation while Bangladesh is spread before her like a wrecked chess set."

Fareha Zeba who paints to express a message rather than sell her work, has had five solo exhibitions so far and has participated in joint exhibitions in China, Canada, France and Bangladesh.