Souvenir Maker, Manoeuvring Over Fractured Lines: The Art of Mahbubur Rahman and the One Year Drawing Project
Story of the Making
These three shows happened simultaneously and touched upon the themes of nationality and interconnectedness.
The Souvenir Maker was an elaborate project / installation by artist L.N. Tallur, who stumbled upon an elaborate machine producing barbed wire and bought a simplified (still complicated for a layman) version to make his own barbed wire. With the wire machinery and spilled grease on one side, Tallur set a gallery-standard display of tubes containing these barbed wires, labelled as souvenir on the other. He also got the machine patented as a Souvenir Maker. One entered the room listening to instrumental anthems of various nations, sound of which got diluted and eventually ceased altogether once the machine was turned on to churn out barbed wire.
The One Year Drawing Project is an experimental drawing exchange involving four of Sri Lanka’s most critically acclaimed contemporary artists – Muhanned Cader, Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Jagath Weerasinghe. The four artists simultaneously created four unique drawings in their respective studios in Sri Lanka. These drawings were exchanged by post. Upon receipt of the drawings, four more were generated in response to the first set. In structure, this chain of events marked the start of The One Year Drawing Project, curated by Sharmini Pereira.
Mahbubur Raman’s solo exhibition covered a decade of his practice and had works from 1998 until 2009 on display. Vidya Shivadas curated this solo show out of the Collection, with works that address themes of communalism, religion, and the self, in relation to these social constructs. A painter and performance artist, Rahman is a key figure in the Bangladeshi art scene and was instrumental in ushering in an experimental contemporary scene.
Souvenir Maker (2009)
Duration: August 2009 – November 2009
Venue: Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, Haryana
The One Year Drawing Project (2009)
Curator: Sharmini Pereira
Duration: August 2009 – November 2009
Venue: Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, Haryana
Maneuvering through Featured Lines: the art of Mahbubur Rahman (2009)
Curator: Vidya Shivadas
Duration: August 2009 – November 2009
Venue: Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, Haryana
