Seasons of Splendour

Prokrity O Pashu

Titled Prokrity O Pashu (Nature and Beast), this is the 5th solo exhibition of Shabin, who is a lecturer of the Drama and Music department of Rajshahi University. "I am addicted to make an artwork by carving, cutting and burning the wood and adding splashes of colour to it," reveals the artist.

"The surface of the wood is my canvas and the hammer, chisel, router, drill, jigs, burner and other tools are my paint brush," laughs Shabin.

"At first I was inspired by the work of Farooq Ahmed, a pioneer of this genre in Bangladesh, but now I've developed my own style and technique," says the artist.

Shabin's ongoing exhibition features 43 woodcarving paintings and a set of sculptures. The essence of nature dominates the exhibition. In the artist's own words, "Most of my creations in this exhibition depict the kaleidoscopic nature of the earth, although the exhibition is titled Prokrity O Pashu, which is in fact taken from the name of my only sculpture."

"Nature has its own rules. But people always try to dominate it, which dilutes the beauty of nature. In fact, every human being has a dual personality. Sometimes the evil side dominates over the righteous one and vice versa. And I am trying to project this complexity of life in my sculpture which is in fact my first sculpture," says Shabin.

Nature has wide range of diversity. And Shabin distinctively captures the glimpses of natural beauty of the country in the wooden panel. The compositions of six seasons, in particular, are magnificent. The summer is visualised in a rough manner with the use of a red and orangish tone in the wood with some trees in the backdrop. The monsoon is depicted with the drops of rain on water lilies in the pond. The autumn is exemplified by the kash phul and a clear sky, sometimes sketched with white clouds.

The late autumn, known as Hemanta in Bangla, shows farmers carrying new paddy from the field. The date tree signals the winter and the earthen pot tied up on the tree for sweet juice, is elegantly done. Heralding spring are the cherry blossoms. All these are done so realistically by carving and using various shades of appropriate colour that the compositions are easily understandable. Apart from the burnt texture and oil and pastel colour, the artist uses bronze and brass sheets, cane, red chandan seeds and colourful stones.

A series, titled Prokrity (Nature), captures the typical scenes of rural Bangladesh. "In this series I use some realistic and semi-realistic motifs to portray nature. The flora and fauna, the moon on high, volumes of cloud, fishermen, farmers and other common subjects are illustrated in this series," says Shabin.

In another series titled Bashati (Locality), the subjects turn abstract occasionally. However, one can easily perceive the shadow of the houses on the river banks.

The most appealing composition is the series titled Drishtir Nanastar (Various levels of vision). At first one may get perplexed and confused about the work. However, as soon as one discovers the inner meaning a whole new world opens up for him/her. "This series is completely experimental and creates the effect of an illusion," chuckles Shabin. However, the next moment he gets serious and questions, "Does a particular object create the same impact every time we see it?" He himself replies, "Not at all. Actually our reaction to the same object changes constantly. And every time we discover the same thing in a new way. This is what I am trying to show in this series."

The exhibition is worth a saunter and will continue till May 22.