SELF AND OTHERS

An artist’s duality of ‘self’ and its encounter with ‘others’

Individuals must understand how they relate to others to interpret and engage with the social world. Self-other understanding forms the backbone of social cognition and is a central concept explored into basic processes such as action, perception, empathy, cooperation and interaction. The duality of ‘self’ and its ultimate encounter with ‘others’ give birth to an artistic venture that Hasura Akther Rumky has offered us through her first solo art exhibition. She constantly searches for the best way to interpret creative ideas through the strokes of paintbrush, textures and forms. For Rumky, art is her life, dream and passion; like many others, she is motivated to live in her dream and make her surroundings more beautiful through her artistic muses.

Rumky’s maiden solo exhibit incorporates several paintings series, including rickshaw pullers, the mystic bards, pigeons with portraits and self-portraits. The first thing the artist encounters while coming out from her home is a rickshaw puller. The advent of rickshaws in Dhaka dates back to the colonial period. As a new mode of commute was introduced, it quickly gained popularity, and so did the art form it brought along. Utmost care is taken to decorate a rickshaw with meticulous hand-painted portraits that take days to complete – a true labour of love. Seeing the vibrant colours, picturesque designs, and catchy motifs created by expert hands from afar, one will instantly identify it as a representation of Bangladesh. But this unique form of art we proudly call our own is on the verge of fading out. Original rickshaw art is rapidly being replaced with digital printing while motor rickshaw is taking the place of original rickshaw in cities across Bangladesh. Depicting rickshaw pullers and the rick-shaw art through paintings is a timely artistic venture by Rumky, who feels hurt to see the pain and plight of the rickshaw pullers along with the dying art form.

The Bauls and the self-portraits by the artist are moving, lyrical and poised as if one was approaching them in real life. There is nothing stylised or static about the portraits. They sing the joy of human achievements as one re-calls the endeavours of the characters Rumky has delineated. Though the colours are vibrant, browns and black do not depress the viewer. The mood created by the lines and colours is a mysterious and magical combination of buoyancy and sobriety. Here, she has combined the female form with the fascinating pigeons with their marvel of feathers. Nevertheless, the wonderful birds – presented in the simplest of colours -- capture one’s imagination and lend repose to the onlookers.

___ Zahangir Alom is a visual artist, journalist, art writer, and cultural curator.

One of the primary motivations for painting is the fascination with form. The source of this fascination is the visible world around us. What we constantly see takes on a new form in the chemistry of the artist’s mind. And there are different types of the charm of forms. I want to learn about myself and know myself beyond all the nature and other wanderings of life around me. Hasura Akther Rumky has portrayed paintings pursuing these two types of emotions. People are the main subject of this promising artist’s paintings. The characteristic of Rumky’s anthropomorphic paintings can be understood in the light of the adage of Da Vinci, “A man’s face is the window to his/her soul”. She often painted the visages of her mother, Rabindranath and self-portraits. The self-portraits are the main means of her self-discovery - to test her ability to create art. The viewer can easily feel this while looking at the artist’s paintings. However, not only ‘I’, ‘Rabindranath’ and ‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’, but also designed rickshaws and rickshaw pullers, Bauls and the marginal people have become the subjects of Rumky’s artistic practice.

Skilled in pastel, acrylic, charcoal, and other mediums, Rumky did not draw superficially familiar subjects; rather, she wanted to touch beyond form, the invisible world. And in the painting, there lies illusion, lust for form and longing for human connection. Rumky has seen and painted herself from different perspectives. The artist has portrayed herself and her reflection in the self-portraits we see in her double-portrait form. Rumky’s treatment of self-infatuation is also reflected in the artist’s paintings. However, Rumky did not want to paint the unhappiness of life. In her works based on ‘Rickshaw and Rickshaw Puller’, the dialectical formula that we find in the bond or conflicting presentation of blackness and colour reveals the essence of life. The viewer’s mind is enlightened with this sense that life is moving on, not disturbed by sadness.

In Rumky’s work, the expression of the couplet of mother and child, the fluttering of pigeons’ wings, is only the embodiment of joy and sound. The mystery of beauty is infinite. To portray that immensity, Rumky has tried to liberate the subject from the linear and morphological bonds of form. This promising painter, starting paintings in her childhood, has won awards from many institutions. The artist is haunted by the cloistered form of ‘I’, and the people around her, especially Hasura Akther Rumky has looked at the rickshaws and rickshaw-pullers of the rickshaw city Dhaka with deep compassion. Illusion, compassion, the thirst for beauty and in search of the secret sources of all these, Rumky’s paintbrush is zealous.

___ Moinuddin Khaled is a renowned art critic and cultural commentator.

Hasura Akther Rumky’s art captures the essentials that we find in our everyday lives. The artist’s creativity focuses on subjects ranging from rickshaw pullers to mystic minstrels, pigeons, and self-portraits. Translating rickshaw art with rickshaw pullers into paintings is what the artist has set apart in her creative journey with a flourish. The artist’s works deserve applause as she has engaged her inner passion for portraying them. What she has tried to project is no less than a feeling swept up in her imaginary world. Finding solace in one’s artistic venture ultimately helps an artist grow distinctively.

___ M. François Grosjean, Director, Alliance Française de Dhaka