Exhibition
Capturing the world in clay
Fayza Haq
Manira Sultana's week-long terracotta exhibition Kadamati opened at Shilpangan yesterday. Speaking about the exhibition in particular and terracotta in general, Hamiduzzaman Khan said, "I have seen her solo exhibitions before at the Zainul Gallery. She expresses her own thoughts and style, and so reflects her own personality in her work. She brings in the village based burnt clay into focus. The colour is put when the clay is soft. Her compositions carry thoughts that are deep. It is from terracotta that the bricks of Moinamoti, Paharpur, Kantaji and Putiya have been made and their origin go back to even thousands of years. They depict mythological stories in relief work. Today aluminum has replaced clay, but earlier our vessels, dishes, cups and glasses were all made of terracotta. Burnt clay products are an integral part of our culture. Students like Manira have brought terracotta to the fine art form. One needs a studio to complete these works and often this is not available and so creativity is curtailed."Manira says that she has gone into terracotta because she wanted to give soft clay an aesthetic touch that rises above the conventional shapes that we come across. She combines flowers, leaves, birds and other motifs from nature into the clay to lend interest to everyday items such as bowls and cups. In one composition she has tried to capture the effect of the rain, slush and mud in pathways. In another creation we see many sandals placed together so that we get the effect of people having left their slippers to go off for some work. Thus the clay sandals represent people. In another place we see a presentation of fish being strung up to be dried. "Shutki maach" is an integral part of some of our meals and terracotta has been used to reflect that. There is a collection of three pillows and they represent a happy family. There is then the gourd with its twining leaves and stems. One finds a tangle of money plants while another piece represents an owl. Manira has studied at the Department of Fine Arts, DU, Ceramics. Her teachers were Moronchand Pal and Syed Talukdar. As a child, about 20 years ago, there was a stream that used to flow by Maghbazar and from there she collected her clay to form shapes of her interest. She also went to fairs where there were clay dolls and other toys of animal and vegetable shapes. "When I visited my grandfather's village home in Bikrampur I further studied how the potters went about their work. Today I want to add a modern touch to clay to make people appreciate it. I hope my creations will someday be carried overseas, where they will speak about my people." Some of her work have a twist in their shape and this has been done in purpose. Manira was greatly affected by deformation of faces by acid. She has about 10 such bowls which are beautiful though twisted. Through them she wants to convey the message that just because the young women have been burnt by acid they are not to be ignored or despised by the rest of society. Manira has a long way to go yet, but she is determined and inspired.
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Art-work by the artist |
