editor's note
Fluid Paradigms Against the Dichotomized Vision of Art
The Bengalis have an enterprising ability to regurgitate words and thoughts originating from the West after they have been thoroughly exhausted or made passé by years of epistemic interventions – both Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
obituary
Siting the image outside the cognitive realm: Fokhrul Islam (1964-2012) and his performatively generated surfaces
Prior to the emergence of the Romantics, landscape as such has been only a peripheral presence in the European art. In contrast, China's tradition trails a long history, but the Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
features
recognizing, engaging, celebrating of cultural expression: an articulation from Bangladesh
The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, meeting in Paris from 3 to 21 October 2005 at its 33rd session, adopted the Convention on the Protection and Promotion Read
writes SYED JAMIL AHMED
Unlimited Kitsch
Kitsch effectuates a range of reactions including sneer and frowning on the part of some who look down upon its unending constellation only with the faint hope that it will Read
writes RONNI AHMMED with GOLAM MORTUJA
Foregrounding unsituatedness: photogenic vs auteur architecture in Dhaka
Built as a modern day wonder, the iconic/phallic gesture that is the parliament building in Dhaka sits at the middle of its sprawling site at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar as the ultimate Read
10 theses on architecture
Wikipedia explains Postmodern architecture 'as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late Read
Unfinished Paradise in an Unscheduled Venice: Functionality and Aesthetics in the Expansion of Mughal Dhaka
The story goes… in 1666, the same year Nawab Shaista Khan freed Chittagong from Portuguese and Arakan pirates, inadvertently opening up opportunities for the Dutch and English, the French traveller and Read
writes SEEMA NUSRAT AMIN
On Summit and other elevated spaces
Art summits/fairs are the most happening, though predictable, avenues through which to enter the much hyped and hybridized space of today's globalized platforms where art, artists, curators, art writers, promoters Read
OGCJM: SHORT-CIRCUITING THE MAINSTREAM
Outside the regular spatiotemporal matrices of urban design there exist zonalities of difference, or liminal spaces, where one finds oneself by chance or fluke. Situated beyond the map of habitual Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
exposure
Signs of Deconstitution: The Gender Outsiders' Razzmatazz
In one of the habitats of the hijra (colloquial for a transgender ) communities in the mega mix of a city that is Dhaka, in a Shayampur slum to be precise Read
encounter
CURATING FROM OUTSIDE: Rafiqul Shuvo speaks about the logic behind OGCJM
It is almost like a hoax we have thought up… in the context of how the hierarchies are set in Bangladesh according to age… as you can see that being Read
imprint
Britto's Space: Seeking Alternative to the Idiomatic
They, together with few other inquisitive individual artists whose periodic initiatives promoted interactivity in art, stand for the consistent search for the New in both local and global contexts and Read
writes SHAKHAWAT TIPU with DEPART DESK
(with)in/out, a null-hypothesis?
An unresolved puzzle, spanning five rooms of Dhaka Art Center, the untitled art, architecture and moving image, a historical Without (the generation of the 1980s) poses as the dark space Read
writes SEEMA NUSRAT AMIN
dissection
Mashiul's hidden canvasses: Unravelling of an Urban Semiosis
In the wake of a confession by British artist David Hockney, where he admits having been a painter of the 'surface' throughout his life, one is bound to rethink the Read
forshortened
historicity, city and sculpture: contextualizing two outdoor sculptures by Novera Ahmed and Nasima Haque Mitu
Urbanization is, at one and the same time, a socio-economic cultural process and a conditional reality, the external manifestations of which are subject to alter with time and space. Therefore, Read
writes SHAHMAN MOISHAN
contoured
Lala Rukh's intertextual frame: embodiment of 'felt body' against Cartesian emotion-reason dyad
The recent sculptures of Lala Rukh Selim unleash a strong visual-conceptual force. Structured through an eroctics of expression which is devoid of desire, they stand for self-generative mode of expressivity Read
writes SHAHMAN MOISHAN
close look
The Poetics of Political Art: Somnath Hore in Retrospect
Somnath Hore (1921-2006) is one of the most prominent figures among the pioneers of modern art who, by injecting a strong sense of disillusionment in the social climate about the capitalist Read
writes SHAKHAWAT TIPU with DEPART DESK
interstice
N E T - P R O F I T: the hybrid space and the vertigo of engagement
Has the internet ushered in the end of l'homme de letters, or literary oracles, or has it given rise to a new breed of oracles who make their appearance using Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
riverview
shadow-boxing with hi(s-)story: The Young Man Was (Part I: United Red Army)
If art attracts us, as Godard said, only by what it reveals of our most secret self, 'United Red Army' succeeds, not only in reclaiming our rights to historicise the Read
writes SEEMA NUSRAT AMIN
navigator
Neither form nor Narrative: Text as object of Reflection
Wakilur Rahman's recent work has the viewer transported onto a plane from where one may realize that his is a world which is neither about imagination nor reality – it occupies Read
writes SHAKHAWAT TIPU with DEPART DESK
Politics of Painting: Ra Kajol's Colonized Humans and Decolonized Expressivity
As the early 1980s set the stage for Ruhul Amin Kajol aka Ra Kajol, to appear and inscribe his own signature on the art scene of Dhaka effectuating a renewal Read
writes GOLAM MURTAJA
voices from the periphery Santaran's recent incursion into Dhaka
Etymologically the Bangla word 'Santaran' means 'to swim'. Taking that word as our starting point we may proceed on to unearth the organizational ethos of the artist-run nonprofit Santaran, which Read
writes SHAKHWAT TIPU with DEPART DESK
