'The Night Journey' by Ayreen Khan. Photo: Monon Muntaka

Ghartera Edition 0: Junkyard is a group art exhibition that comments on the way we think about art. It initiates dialogue, and challenges preconceived notions of the art world in a bid to bring us further away from the image of art being preserved in a glass box, accessible only to an elite few. In that regard, the organisers approached Dwip Gallery, a humble space in Lalmatia that is open to new and innovative ways of displaying art.

The exhibition shows that art can be more - it is not something to see and forget about, but something we can touch, feel and smell. It urges us to communicate directly with the artwork in a way that gives life to the concept that an artwork's meaning is only completed once the viewer engages with it and perceives it in their own way. It is well curated in thought and message.

The show's principles are loud and clear, especially among the powerful use of images. Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo, who is also the curator of the event, exhibits photo-collages that feature bizarre juxtapositions and force the viewer's eyes to take note of the details that are generally ignored in plain images.

“I want to promote the practice of making art from a critical-political lens and create safe pockets for those artworks to be displayed in a way which is more accessible for people from all walks of life,” says Apurbo.

A series of photographs by Navid Nooren, titled, Decaying Nature, are displayed on light-boxes that brought forward interesting technicolour hues, prompting us to view the image in quite literally, a new light. The series comments on the distortion of our environment in the name of development.

The displayed artworks also feature a series of traditional paintings on canvas, but the surprise element lay in the canvases being nailed to a panel on the wall, so that the paintings seem like window-doors, which we could turn and go through like a large picture book, except the paintings are real.

Juxta-Beauty, an engrossing installation, is put together by Inan Anjum Sibun, accompanied by a poem written on the wall. The poem talks about failed expectations and mirrors, reflecting white drawings of many versions of women's faces and bodies on black carton-like boxes placed on two corner walls like puzzle pieces. The piece also includes broken shards of a mirror, an old head phone, a camera and a TV remote. We might interpret this as the many different layers of a female, which is most often not portrayed in the media.

Mushfiqur Rahman Johan displays a series of photographs printed on film-like rolls. The photo rolls include handwritten text that explains the inspiration behind the series. According to a viewer, the images portray both sadness and joy, as they feature Shumi, a young domestic worker. In some photos she plays like the child she is, in others she is captured in more sombre tones doing chores such as cleaning, cooking and washing. The exhibition will run till April 25 from 3 pm to 9 pm.