Proshanto Kumar Buddha's art on display

Artist Proshanto Kumar Buddha's first series at Shilpangan titled “Reminiscence” -- that began on on August 6 -- is on books. He said that children spend hours on their mobiles, laptops and chat away with their friends online. In the process they have abandoned the reading habit. His aim is to get children to go back to the pleasure of reading.

There are 10 pieces on this subject. They are all done in mixed media and the shelf contains books on Rabindranath, Nazrul, Jibananand Das. The next in the series contain doors, in a depiction of the lost and forgotten city of Sonargaon, once a capital city of Bangladesh. “We destroy our wealth by ignoring them,” Buddha believes. They are presented with padlocks which need to be preserved through the years. The government and rich businessmen should make this their priority, says the artist on an emotional note. 

“The sea is our wealth and so sailing boats are a source of our earning. Today we see only engine-driven boats which ply on the rivers and pollute them,” says Buddha. Before, he says, men used to sing while plying boats, but now this habit has been lost.

The next series is on flowers like cosmos, sun flowers, lotus, and lilies. The artist says that the children should be inspired by them instead of getting distracted by technology.