A tale of many masks

The words exotic, exceptional or eerie could not describe the faces on the walls at Galleri Kaya.

Samin Sabababdnews24.com
Published : 19 May 2015, 03:53 AM
Updated : 19 May 2015, 05:12 AM

And there were 127 works on display -- creations by 15 artists that formed the gallery’s sixth mask exhibition ‘Mukh O Mukhosh-6’.

Walking among these unique pieces in the way they express or just stare reminded one of life’s sheer diversity and its maddening effect.

Some born of wood, metal, glass, terracotta, paper-mache, plaster of paris while others were patchworks of many elements. All in all, a conundrum of forms, colours and techniques at play.

At the centre of the main hall, was an elegant lady by Kazi Rakib.

Her pale, slender face was actually an inverted bottle. With her blue glass beret and wooden coat, it almost looked as if she was cold. A ‘Bideshini’ or foreigner, for sure.

It was not a mask but a sculpture, untitled like most of Rakib’s work.

“The exhibition is for masks and faces. So I’m in the face zone,” he said, laughing.

“The lady seemed sad to me, but what did you think?”

There was also a glass man by Rakib, staring at the lady from a corner. Jagged and less composed, was he her opposite? “Yes … that he is. I made his face from a whisky bottle.”

The artist has several more of his creations displayed there.

There were three paper mache masks by Masuda Kazi, Rakib’s wife. Not uniform and unworldly, they stared back with conviction.

One had a parrot green nose, a bright orange brow, blue-purple eyes and an icy white forehead, while another, grey-black, seemed as if it was wrapped in bandage.

Saidul Haque Juise, a master of masks, had taken on the grotesque.

He translated his criticism of the ‘Arab Spring’ that swept across the Middle East, into two gigantic masks.      

“One is a man and the other a woman,” he said.

The paper and pigment gave them rough textures. “It’s violence you know and how it is imposed in the guise of certain movements.”

A crow sat on the dark barbed wire gagging the man’s mouth and peered into it. “The barbed wire has been shaped like a flower … an irony from this so-called spring,” said Juise.     

“Women always become pawns in such situations. This one is a jest,” he said explaining why he applied a layer of white pigment on the female face. The ominous crow stood on her head.

“I wanted to put a human bone in her hollowed lips. But then I realised that she was complete without it.” 

Juise, once a student of eminent artist Mustafa Monwar long before his famous puppets were on television, translated what he learned into masks, said Kazi Rakib, when asked how mask-making entered Bangladesh’s art scene. 

“He would make masks in the veranda of Dhaka University’s art institute surrounded by students.” Even though colourful masks give life to Charukola during Bengali New Year – the craft is not officially taught in classes.

The others produced an array of masks or faces, diffusing the line between the two. Abdur Rahim had crafted numerous wooden faces - mute and ancient. Three of them had mirrors framed within wooden hair, eyes and noses.

Rituparna Dhar’s bronze metal faces might have teleported from an ancient royal court. Kings, generals, ministers with flaring moustaches – all very angry. 

Rajaul Islam Lovelu engraved his wood to give life to his masks – faces of native Indians, women, animals, a skull emerging from under a parting face.  

Debdas Malakar used bright strokes of colours, familiar to those seen at Mongol Sobhajatra, but with his own twist. Faces protruded out of paper mache panels. “I used cloth inside, besides clay and paper mache, to start a unique style.”

“There is debate about when our artists began making masks. Some say it began in the 80s in Jessore but others disagree,” said Galleri Kaya director Goutam Chakraborty.

“They were recently added to Charukola’s procession.”

“Masks of animals were sold in village fairs when we were children. They were used as props in Jatras (plays).”

Their rural roots might explain the sharp, exaggerated features commonly seen in the masks they continue to influence, he said.

“Things are improvising. We’ve held five more mask exhibit before this. More are interested in contributing to the craft, leaving us with more room in terms of selection.”  

Others whose brilliant works on display are Debashish Pal, Shabin Shahriar, Bishwajit Paul, Pintu Chandra Deb, Sandip Kumar Debnath, Kanok Kumar Pathak, Amit Kuch and Shaymal Kumar Sarkar.

The exhibit sponsored by ADN Group will be on at the gallery in Uttara until May 20.