SAADA

I printed several copies of Nancy's digital image, scanned them in multiple sizes, and arranged the scans in different orders to finalize the composition of the collage. I tore the scanned image into two pieces, made a square slot into one of her eyes, pasted the pieces into my drawing book with 'super-glue'. Then I hand-painted the bird and abstract roots. The highlight of the collage is the dried dandelion which I attached between the two pieces of the scanned images. The entire process took place in several days. The dandelions were collected beside my house in Khulna. I couldn't paste the flower directly into my artwork because the pappus (matured seed of dandelion) would fly around. So I treated the pappus with some glue to reduce wind dispersion. I book-pressed the seeds for several days and pasted them in the shape of a dandelion blowbulb into the image. While listening to Nancy's oral history, I felt her identity as Bangladeshi-American strongly resembled the floating seeds of dandelions.

This is the second one of Indira's collage. I didn't like the first one. The process is the same. I scanned four portraits of Indira, tore them into pieces, and pasted them onto the surface. I loved their hair color and thought it's a significant part of their personality so I used the colored portion of the scan. The nest was drawn by using acrylic color. I painted the bird in a similar process and added a blue nest on top connecting the hair. When I finished painting, I realized I trapped the bird inside the white square. So the square signifies the border the person is trying to cross. The most interesting feature of the image is the triangle. I found Indira to have a resilient and strong personality. Triangle is known as the strongest of all kinds of geometric shapes. If you put pressure at any corner of a triangle, it makes the structure even stronger. I also added a third eye and painted strings on top of it. I feel eyes are the windows to our hearts. We experience our life through it. And it felt Indira was telling their story through the memory of their third eye. I also added a hand-drawn fingerprint-like motif that resembles a maze.

Atif has a deep connection with fishing that I think is linked to his hometown Barisal, which lies in the delta of Padma and Jamuna rivers. I used a famous printmaking technique developed by the Japanese fishermen community called Gyotaku. Through this art form, the fishermen kept a record of their catches. So I felt this practice has an interesting relationship between artmaking and archiving. My father bought tilapia fish from the market at my house in Khulna. I inked the whole fish with a thick layer of red acrylic color, placed a damped cotton piece of fabric around the fish, and created a print by gently pressing and rubbing the surface. I washed, dried, pressed, and cut the fabric into two pieces. These pieces were attached to the surface of the paper with glue. Atif's oral history has a violent and chilling encounter of witnessing the murder of Xulhaz and Tonoy. Cutting the fabric into two pieces and the choice of acrylic color may have a connection to it. The rest of the process is pretty similar. I tore the scanned copies of Atif's portrait, made a rectangular hole in the right side, and pasted them to the paper. I painted a bird in the square slot and drew straight red lines to connect the gap between the two parts. I scanned the whole piece and changed the color of the right side of the face to a warm orange. Finally, I used a sewing machine to create the red and green fingerprint pattern around the head. The stitch also connects the paper and fabric together. Atif brought katha (Bangladeshi hand-stitched quilted blanket) at the time of his migration to the U.S. He takes a strong sense of pride in his Bangladeshi identity and heritage.

This was my last work. I had a mental health breakdown in between finishing this piece. Just to be clear, my mental health circumstances were not linked to this project. I took a white piece of fabric with a lower thread count. I colored the fabric with a warm orange color and pasted it on the paper surface. I used a color print of Sharmin's portrait, tore it into two pieces, and pasted it onto the paper. The abstract nest was painted at the bottom. In this artwork, I used a rectangular white fabric to create the slot for the bird. Machine stitch was used to attach the rectangle to the orange-colored surface. An irregular machine stitch with a red thread connected the whole piece together. I painted the bird on separate white paper and stitched it with a white thread on top of the rectangular fabric. I scanned the full piece and edited it in photoshop before finalizing it.

I depicted this feeling of discomfort as a swarm of cockroaches crawling on your skin. Who do not bite with chronic venom but their presence is difficult to remove. They are discomforting. If not attended to, they also have the potential to slowly kill you.
I do not think Puja is confronted by all of her discomfort at the same time. Depending on the situation, they take turns. Therefore all the cockroaches are not on their skin. There is a group of cockroaches on the floor waiting for their turn - depicting their past/future discomforts. Puja is aware of them so the head is placed in a way where they can see all the bugs.
The shadow represents the imprints of the trauma caused by their experiences. Puja casts a shadow of the bugs where they are supposed to cast a shadow of themself. This depicts the fragmentation of puja's identity.
Regardless of its reality, Puja also casts a shadow of a flower on the wall. One that they hold close to them. It is placed in a way where it can be depicted in several ways. The flower can be kept with puja for themself or it can also be offered to others. The flower represents puja's ability to find the sense of self, adapt, make home, form relationships, and build community.