Life within life

Venue : Drik Gallery, Dhanmondi Dhaka

When we are writing, or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colours are brighter, sounds clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize. Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature and life into his pictures.

"Life Within Life", the 3rd Solo Painting Exhibition by Artist Nasima Khanam Queenie depicts exactly the same story the title says. The solo painting exhibition comprises 33 artworks mostly done in 2009 and started from 8 January, 2010.

The exhibition will be inaugurated by Mr. Abul Kalam Azad, The Honourable Minster for Information & Culture, Govt. of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh as the Chief Guest. Artist Shahid Kabir and Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam were also present as Special Guests on the occasion.

“Life Within Life” is an effort to look into life that exists within all living beings. It is not cells within the human blood but their rhythmic arrangements, it is not the dead fossils but the beauty within, it is not the brain but the symphony that it creates for every action. It is not the life within life under the microscope of the medical practitioner or the botanist but as perceived by the creative and imaginative mind of an artist. It is concrete within abstract. It tends to show the shades within singularity displaying how variable it is. It is an exposition in a uniquely different dimension reflecting on the extent of creativity and imagination.

The exhibition will remain open from 8-16 January 2010, from 3.00 P.M. to 8.00 P.M. daily. So if you have some time and want to drench yourself with some excellent works of painting this winter's evening, this exhibition is a must go for you.

By Zabir Hasan

Queues and expectations

You look at it over the counter 5 feet away, and sigh. It looks like what you suspect it is, but it is, you suspect, not what it is supposed to be like. You are, after all, a person harbouring suspicions one too many, a little paranoid. It's understandable. The queue is long, stretching just around the other counter, and it is rather impossible to wiggle your way through, so you don't even try. The marble floor has already been robbed of its pristine white beauty for now, what with people coming and going, their shoes and unrolled trouser edges dripping of sludge, creating mottled patterns on the floor.

With nothing else to do, you do what normal people do very casually but pretend they don't. Oh come on, you can't seriously be pretending that eavesdropping is not both an art and a guilty pleasure? The girl two people away from you is wondering aloud, to the boy clinging to her like conjoined twins do, that it's nothing special, that it's just one of those overrated things. You wonder silently why she is standing in line then, and pass her a smirk she misinterprets as a friendly smile, smiling uncertainly back at you.

The queue gets shorter after tens of minutes pass by, and you find yourself suddenly at the forefront of the queue. The man at the counter ladles out spoonfuls of it for you mechanically. You pay for it, sit down outside the arena but still inside the cafeteria, and sigh again.

You scrutinize the rice closely. The fat, brown granules glisten in a sickly way back at you in the half-baked sunlight, littered with black berry-like substances; you have no idea why the black things are nested there in the rice like that. Are they meant to be decorations? Or are they one of those numerous vegetable thingies that go with everything?

The rice is rather cold, a pale imitation, a stark contrast to the image you have of steaming hot, flavoured Basmati rice poured out fresh from the huge rice pot. You push the image away, mix the 'rice' with the curry, and began to eat.

By Anika Tabassum

DIY

Little boxes, little boxes
A great idea for a gift or if you need a cool storage space is to transform any old box lying around the house into something worth holding important stuff.

Here's how:
Ingredients
A shoebox or any small box preferably made of wood or cardboard.
Watercolour or acrylic paint.
Glitter, stones and sequins.
Old magazines and photographs.
Superglue and Aica glue.
Scissors.
Emery paper.
Paint brushes.

Process
1. If the box already has paint on it, scrape it off with some emery paper to remove all traces of paint and make the surface smooth.

2. Cut out pictures from old magazines or old photographs into various shapes and glue them to the box properly so the original surface of the box is not uncovered, make sure there are no ripples on the cover. Let the glue dry.

3. Use a wide brush to paint a thin layer of watercolour or acrylic paint in a color that superimposes the pictures below.

4. Once the box dries, repeat step 3, but make sure the paint is of a very watery consistency.

5. Add embellishments such as glitter, marker messages, stones and sequins (available in mind blowing shades and shapes at New Market).

6. When the box dries completely, mix Aica glue to water in the ratio 1:3 and apply on all the surfaces of the box to obtain a painting like sheen and adding a long lasting quality to the box.

By Tanzina Amreen Haq