Sensitising art lovers with a new media - Video art at Britto Art Space

Five visual artists -- Jewel A Rob, Fahema Ahmed, Reetu Sattar, Kehkasha Sabah and Shimul Datta recently displayed their video art pieces at Britto Space. The pieces were the outcome of a six-day workshop held last year at the same space, titled “Pixelation 3”.

Zooming in on the philosophy of magic realism, Jewel A Rob showcased a popular childhood game “Hide and Seek”. Fahema Ahmed focused on the “Unexpected Moments” she experienced in life and that feeling of numbness in her limb. This means loss of sensation or feeling in both her legs over a period of time.

Titled “Juice Bar Duration”, Reetu Sattar tried to capture the human anatomy depending on gender. For her, the visual reading of beauty is contaminated by factors of gender, identity, sex, religion etcetera. But the innocence of beauty is found in the innocence of the self. 

With the theme “I am an object”, Kehkasha Sabah displayed her wonderful yet complex feeling of her 10 months pregnancy time. It's a sublime feeling of love, caring, and restraint or protection towards an unborn baby. Sabah donned the performance late in her pregnancy when she was strongly feeling how her baby was growing inside her womb. 

Shimul Datta, in his video titled “Formal-in”, portrayed the obstacles he faced in his childhood. He found something was always on top of him, saying 'No'. It was all beyond his reach for what he wanted to be or to do something to get in to his real character.

“Starting from 2006, this is our eighth installment of such project. But with a name 'Pixelation', we have so far displayed three video art shows, while the fourth one is in the offing. Pixelation 1 and 2 were held in 2011 and 2012 while workshop for Pixelation 4 was held during last month and video display is set to kick off on October 2-3 this year. We have kept options for both sound and video in the latest projects. It's an attempt to make artists learn video art and baptise them with a new media. We also organise lecture series on new media. Besides, they are equipped with formal lessons on DSLR camera, video editing and more. Initially we give specific themes to the participating artists and they developed their own arts based on their concepts,” said Tayeba Begum Lipi, one of the founders and trustees of Britto Arts Trust.