Devious People with deviantART
What's the difference between a poor artist and a rich one? One gets to display inside a building and the other doesn't. Of course, being out in the open just makes it more fun. Whatever the case, last Friday saw Dhanmondi Road 4/A become a poor artist's gallery. Why poor? Because these artists are not dead yet. 96 percent artists become famous and rich after they're gone. But these days we have the internet. That changes stuff. Now that we're done dispensing almost useless knowledge, let's move on to the art scene.
deviantArt is an online international community for aspiring artists to portray their digital art. It's free so everyone posts something there including thousands upon thousands of duckface shots. Yes, duckface is an international phenomenon. So how do you find the smaller but more interesting group? You mercilessly filter applicants.
On the 24th of February, Bangladeshi Deviant - a local group of said community - filtered such artists and picked the ones that boggled the mind. And then they went about showcasing all that in their first major event named Untitled-1: A Street Art Exhibition.
As said by one of the organisers, it was aimed to jumpstart the underground art movement in the country. The exhibits were varied, containing art ranging from traditional to more radical themes. Imagine cars, boats, people, photographs, paintings, whatnot. There were over a hundred works of digital art sent in by members of Bangladeshi Deviant, School of Everything Else (SEE) and Graphics and Animation Association (GRAFA). It was an open event and too many people came up. Guess to show the good things in life, it has to be free and people will want it.
There was music. Blunderware, Naive and Our Lady of Bengal gave unplugged performances. People wisecracked, talked, flirted, nodded to the music; it was a good hangout.
On of the major attractions of the event was the Norwegian flutist Ingeborg Christophersen offering a wild contrast to what we usually hear. It went on into the evening with a 'Light Graffiti' demonstration. It's exactly what is says, the creation of artworks through a specialised photography technique involving handheld light sources with long exposures.
The event was self-funded by the organiser - Ahmed Tazeem, Raiyan Momen, Anika Anjum, Abhijit Asad and Oru Kabir - and LiveSquare Concerts along with Rikskonsertene were official partners. Speaking about the event, Anika said, “We didn't realise the event would be such a big hit. The response was nice, and we'll try to make it bigger next time.” So look forward to another show in the near future. And if you want to be the artist featured next time around, head over to www.deviantart.com. Upload your stuff, search for the group called Bangladeshi Deviant, submit your work to them. Get famous.
