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Art Talk With Abir Shome

On art, artists, and industry  

Published : Thursday, 14 September, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 559
Nazmun Naher Shishir
What is art to you?
To me, art is a 'Mere Activity', a lie. I am not puritanical. I communicate with my state and society through art, and mostly my art reacts. To be more specific, by profession I am an artist.
I do art to maintain my existence as an artist. It is to be mentioned that being an artist is a self-confined process. I wanted to get away from art many times, but I come back after a while, I cannot get rid of it. My life is the life of Sisyphus and thus my burden is that I am an artist!

What inspires you to be an artist?
My father is an artist (Biren Shome), and he is the biggest reason behind. From childhood I used to imitate him and his artist friends. They used to wear pants of cord, keep their hair long, and the colour on their hand, the smell of cigarette, all these used to enchant me. That's why I wanted to be an artist. There was no serious cause behind it, I think.

Use of graph paper and syringe like materials in an artwork is innovative and to some extent destructive, that you often use. Any particular reason behind?  
Use of graph paper and syringe is something I own. Whether it is innovative or destructive does not matter to me, as long as I am enjoying it.
To apply non-linier method syringe works as weapon. And it surpasses the boundary of artificial protection of an artwork. These materials sublime my artwork to break the existing grammar of the art. To de-skill my skill and again to re-skill by breaking the form of an art piece through these props, I can go beyond my comfort zone as an artist.      

Recently at E-prokoash, your exhibition held till September 10. Why the name of the exhibition was 'Noshto Attar Television'?
My works are the spontaneous reaction of an event or of another text. After reading the book 'Noshto Attar Television' by Falguni Roy, I started to draw whatever came through my imagination about television. Moreover, In this way, the series gradually stood up. That's why I named the show 'Noshto Attar Television.'

When were these drawn?
These were done at different times during 2015 to 2016. Before 2015, I hadn't drawn any picture for about two years, but I worked in other media. I used to read literature to grow my interest and imagination. And, then read Hungry Generation inspires me to draw after the block I was going through.  

In many of your work at 'Noshto Attar Television', dystopian landscape, and distorted identity of animal and human body is vivid. Why is that?
As a human what we are, is a filtered version of our identity. I think, human and animal is the mirror of each other. That's why filtered identity acts more artificial. In my works, neither the humans nor the animals are filtered. They are the reality of my lucid imagination.
In my reality there is no binary relationship between animal and human. To be precise, there is no hierarchal position of human in front of animal, to me.

The beauty of your artwork is 'chaos'. Is that deliberate?
Life journey of a human is chaotic as well as destructive. But, this journey is the biggest art. Whatever come up to my lucid imagination throughout my journey, I put those in my work. My art is the spontaneous reflection of my experiences.     

You have used plenty of red colour in the works of 'Noshto Attar Television'. Is there any political reason behind it?
Art, like literature, is political, to me. And an artist cannot be uninfluenced by the contemporary political events. Mass killing has increased death worldwide. Use of red colour in my work is a reflection of those destructive events. It symbolizes the death and violence.

How do you see the colonial influence in Bengal's art? How far that is political?
To some extent, our art academy still has colonial influence. Still it taught to express their artistic nature with the art medium and style taught in the colonial period. It seems we still live in the colonial period. Being a student, initially I have followed those steps too.
Everything is political and constructed, I think. Thus, I see all things politically. I wrote in a text-based work of mine, 'Hard English Everywhere'. Falguni Roy's poem 'My Rifle My Bible' (Amar Rifle Amar Bible) has usage of both the language -- Bangla and English, and it has strengthen the emotion of this poem.
Though language is political, expression and humour are more politically. More than language, what is said by the language is important. The lack of humour biased us to take things 'literally' which distort the actual meaning.   

You seem getting inspired by others' work a lot as many of your artwork is pastiche. Who inspires you? And what criticism do you face regarding giving reference?  
Being a 'mediocre artist', I get inspired by everyone's work. As I believe, my innovative power is low. My surroundings and artists of my surroundings are my inspiration. Sometimes, a piece of poem can inspire me to put something in my work. These are the 'key' of my work.
I do not believe in authenticity and I do not even have that power. I 'stole' from all the artists and humans of the world. I deliberately ignore the references. This habit of mine is very controversial and many critics say that I am not an artist. But, I believe, art is a free sphere.
Regarding reference, I don't have any agenda. May be, I am being morally lazy. But being a non-artist, I enjoy that people know me as an artist!

What steps can be taken to flourish art as industry in Bangladesh?
Financial support is a big challenge nowadays. Acceptance of 'unconventional artists' is another challenge. Art as career is yet to become an industry in Bangladesh. It is shameful for all the people of the country and even for the artist community.
We have a lot of good artists in our country. We also have to do something for future artists. As Atish Saha did 'Tasher Desh' in his own initiative, more like this is needed.
There is no art museum in Bangladesh. The Fine Art section at the museum is also very poorly maintained; neither there is enough funding for 'restoration'. Lots of works have been ruined for this reason.
Death of an artwork is the death of an artist. And, a society without artists would become a barren place. If as an artist and as an audience we maintain our duty, art industry will flourish, no matter what happens.





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