Exhibition
Jhunu's sculptures draw attention
Fayza Haq
Jhunu Akter, who has studied at Shantiniketan, is holding a solo sculpture exhibition at Alliance Francaise. It is called 'The inner story of life.' She was never afraid of the problems that confront a sculptor here in Bangladesh. As a child she won two awards for fine arts and sailed into her studies here at the Institute of Fine Arts. Today she has a second award, to do her PhD from Shantiniketan. She has always been encouraged by her elder brother who is an established artist in USA. She has been guided in her studies by Sharbari Rai Chowdhury, Bhipen Das, and Shushen Ghosh. Her studies concentrated on the works of Ram Kinkor. Her expertise is in bronze, dokra and fibre casting. She has worked on wood and cement too. In the dokra we see an expectant mother, relaxing. This was done in Shantiniketan and had sand, dung, oil, coils going into its finish. It was fired before the bronze was firmly set. Another one had hollow casting and brought in two human figures. This had been first done in plaster of Paris, and wax and then transformed into metal in a large kiln. "The first application of the heat is a low one, then a high one and lastly a low one once more," Jhunu says. It takes four days of firing. We come across another resting composition in which the figure is kneeling. Jhunu did this first in clay, next in plaster of Paris and then transferred it into white cement. There is a primitive figure that appears like some totem pole. In this piece, as in all others, we see the impact of Henry Moore and Sharbari Rai Chowdhury. The artist says that she is an ardent admirer of Michaelangelo too. There is also the figure of an embracing couple, in which the man and the woman appear to be blending and merging into one another. She has then moved into the more abstract and created an image with two triangles. One fascinating piece is that of a boar, which Jhunu saw in Shantiketan, and which she did with sponge bits, stuck together. In the backdrop of the sculpture exhibit were water colours on paper, which she had done earlier and which made the exhibit more colourful as the sculpture pieces are monochrome. Jhunu has taken part in about 20 joint exhibits, seven workshops, and has won two scholarships.
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Works on display |
