ARTWORKS 2003-2011
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Firoz Mahmud Works 2003-2011
2011
ALL ARTWORK © FIROZ MAHMUD
Book cover and interior Design: Cindy Rodriguez
NEED FINAL TEXT FOR CREDITS AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION.
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FIROZ MAHMUD: A Learning Journey
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By Lucy Birmingham
Firoz Mahmud’s remarkable paintings and installations inspire questions, and learning. My first encounter with the work of this thought provoking Bangladeshi artist was at Japan’s Aichi Triennale 2010. And an amazing sight it was. The 26-foot (8-meter) replica of a Super Hornet F/A 18 fighter jet, embedded with thousands of colorful beans and grains of rice, had attracted a curious crowd, growing bigger by the minute. From a highladdered platform, one could get a bird’s-eye view of the scene below. Visitors, young and old, snapped photos, and the “please touch” sign invited all to investigate the remarkable rice and bean artistry patterned in tiny orange lentils, red kidney and black beans, and Indian dal of dark green mas, golden toor and warm yellow mung. But what did it all mean?
Firoz’s 2011 solo-exhibition “Lamentation in Two Lies” at Ota Fine Arts in Tokyo was also a captivating commentary on war -- the sorrow it produces and the massive, misaligned spending it induces -- with an historical perspective reflecting his Eastern roots. Dangling in the center was the installation “Fatboy”; five bean-covered fighter jet models, aptly named after the U.S. atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan in 1945 The group of ‘chubby’ jets symbolized the military fat gained from sucking off of public funds better used for feeding the many poor and needy in the Indian/Bangladesh/Pakistan region. Although divided by rule and borders, the three countries share deep ties in food and culture. Firoz says these small aircraft are the “limbs” of his larger “Sucker`wfp21” Aichi Triennial work.
Surely it was the uniqueness of the combat jet (with accompanying photograph and drawing) that drew in the crowds -- familiar in form, but so different in presentation. In peaceful Japan, a fighter jet is an anomaly. War machinery is not normally an item or issue used in works by Japanese artists. It had a foreign sensibility; always intriguing to the Japanese.
Surrounding the installation was a series of oil paintings Firoz calls “Layapa Art”; a stencil technique borrowed from Japanese ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints and paint applied like plaster. The plastering technique, he explains, is similar to the way women in rural Bangladesh and India apply layers of wet mud to form the walls and floor of their clay huts. The shaped canvases, protruding and indented in sections along the frame, add a rough-hewn ambiance to the work.
Titled “Sucker`wfp21,” I learned the work symbolized disproportionate government spending on militarism rather than needed food programs. ‘Sucker’ = sucking from public survival (food=beans/rice); ‘wfp’ = world food program similar to UNESCO`s World Food Program; ‘21’ = 21st century. At the time I had been witnessing an art world disproportionately consumed with sales, prestige and superficiality rather than substance. What a pleasure it was to encounter an artwork from a young, rising artist with vital, socio-political commentary on war and hunger -- finely rendered. I wanted to learn more.
Most of Firoz’s Layapa paintings are inspired by manuscripts, scrolls and ancient coins, and based on the regional history of Bangladesh and India stretching back thousands of years. The works are dreamy, myth-like renditions of the region’s legends with historical drama and tragedy beautifully abstracted in rich earth tones and hues of striking blue and green. The paintings in the “Lamentation in Two Lies” solo show depict war and conflict in the region during the eighteenth century. “Desolation” (2010),
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features the Nawab (ruler) of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent ruler of the Indian subcontinent. He stands in his palace contemplating his army’s terrible defeat against the British East India Company. With a flower in hand, he waits for the comforting arms of his consort. “Traitor of Faith [plot 1 #Shiraj & Mir]” features a conspiracy against the Nawab, while “Traitor of Faith [plot 2 #Shiraj & Mir]” evokes a scene from the “Battle of Palashi” (West Bengal) in 1757. Considered a turning point in Bengal and Indian history, it led to the nearly 100-year British rule over India. Again, I was intrigued and wanted to learn more. 10
Firoz has explored social and emotive issues in previous works such as his 2009 “NINKi :UoPD” drawings, first shown at the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). (The Japanese word ‘ninki’ means popular.) The series includes photo portraits of controversial celebrities drawn with geometric patterns that appear like protective hex symbols. Firoz explains that however tainted, icons such as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson and even sumo champion Asashoryu can remain invincible in their popularity, protected by an uncanny force.
pate in a research program at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) after receiving a fellowship from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2004, he came to Japan with a Monbugakakusho scholarship from the Japanese government and received his MFA from the Tama Art University in Tokyo. This year in March he gained his PhD in 2011 from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He then moved to New York City as an artist-in-residence backed by a Starr Foundation/Asian Cultural Council (ACC) fellowship. Now with New York as his base, he will continue to participate in exhibitions, biennial and art fairs worldwide. With his Bangladeshi roots, Firoz is among a growing cadre of internationally recognized artists from Asia and the Middle East. Through globalization, the power of the Internet, and converging insights, they are asking vital questions -- a new art movement embedded with learning. ..... Lucy Birmingham is a journalist, scriptwriter, copywriter and photographer
Firoz’s first explored the power of icons in his 2008-2009 “Halycon Tarp” project, shown at the Sharjah Art Museum during the 9th Sharjah Biennial 2009 in the United Arab Emirates. The installation was modeled on a traditional Bangladeshi hut, displayed with figures of the Royal Bengal tiger, the iconic symbol of the country. Here, Firoz probed intolerance in politics and religion, and caste bigotry. Born in Khulna, Bangladesh, Firoz received a BFA from the Dhaka University Fine Art Institute. He moved to Amsterdam in 2002/3 to partici-
based in Tokyo for about 25 years. As a journalist with a fondness for art, her articles have appeared in Time.com, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Bloomberg News, Architectural Digest, Artinfo.com, Artforum.com, ARTnews, among many other art publications. As a scriptwriter and rewriter she has been working with NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, since 2000 on numerous programs from news to fashion. She has published several books including the classic, “Old Kyoto – A Guide to Shops, Inns and Restaurants.”
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Major Art Projects 12
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Sucker’wfp21
The aircraft considers the interplay of militarism and prejudice related to the state of civil defense that most of the governments are in. Each government spends money for their military, defense, weapons, military aircraft – sucking money from public tax and revenue. This militarism is ripe with pride and always prepares for an eventual war. This aircraft is made of Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) with metal structure and glass. Beans, crops and rice also cover the entire body based on the concern that many people share: survival. These aircraft function as a stage for the reinterpretation of political militarism.
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2010
SUCKER’WFP21
Installation view at Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo Size of each combat fighter aircraft is 40" long. Beans were pasted on the body of these aircraft. (This is the extended version of the project “Sucker’wfp21”, exhibited at Aichi Triennale 2010.)
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SUCKER’WFP21
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SUCKER’WFP21
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SUCKER’WFP21
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Sucker’wfp21 in Progress
SUCKER’WFP21
Documenation of production process.
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Lamentation in Two Lies
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LAMENTATION IN TWO LIES
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Halcyon Tarp
The `Halcyon Tarp` is an installation project modeled on a traditional hut of Bangladesh. It renders the entire body of a hut and tigers with oil painting and Layapa technique. The Royal Bengal tiger is the main character for this installation. The tiger appears in the entrance, in the picture frame, in the video and in the drawing (Rally Round Rajah or RRR). They are implied as political persons and their realm. I am caring for them as ‘bigots’ of my children. I am playing a role as mother here to foster them. Their idolized appearance rendered with Layapa oil painting and the protective line drawings on the images (RRR) and videos signal an awareness of the increasingly extinctoriented ethos of fauna. 34
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I drew lines where the tigers are about to fall down, jump, or move as if to prevent them from falling down in the photographs or video. The tigers are the national ‘icon’ of Bangladesh, here as symbolic bigots who are intolerant toward people, and hold different views on matters of politics, religion, or ethnicity.
2008-2009
HALCYON TARP
Installation view at Sharjah Art Museum during the 9th Sharjah Biennial 2009, UAE Wood, Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), paper pulp, oil ‘Layapa’ Painting, video, drawing and objects Main structure: 530 x 350 x 260 cm
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HALCYON TARP
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HALCYON TARP
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HALCYON TARP
Pages from the 9th Sharjah Biennial 2009 Catalog.
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Father; Other/SoS
The ‘Father; Other’is an attempt to define the coordinates in which contemporary infrastructure is blatantly decreed. The high court as ‘Father or judge’ arises like a metaphor in a strained country field, a hope land, but full of contradictions in its essential quest for peace and justice. It functions as an invisible landscape that we long for; One that we manipulate, and that in some way we inhabit – both physically and metaphorically. This installation serves as an imaginary model of infrastructure that guides us through an economic utopia. A country soaked up in its power needs to redefine a new cartography by shifting its political and economic sources of power toward an egalitarian level. 44
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The model in this project is of a Court building. A vacuum cleaner hose runs through the top of the dome. The entire body of the building will lightly shake once the vacuum cleaner is turned on. This work reflects the state of misuse of rules and law. The vacuum cleaner is used here as a rhetorical activity to be technical. Green ‘Layapa’ oil painting is rendered on the half-body of the building. Medical bandages and Japanese fantasy manga magazines are used on the dome to evoke an exotic and chaotic feeling of the reality of high court society.
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FATHER; OTHER/SoS
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FATHER; OTHER/SoS
Installation with vibration and sound. Wood, vacuum cleaner, oil layapa painting, wood, plastic, bandage, glass, styrofoam, Japanese manga magazine, toys 2500 x 1000 x 600 mm
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FATHER; OTHER/SoS
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Images of project in progress.
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Chimera
This project is based on my lost ancestors. I am looking for my ancestors who migrated to major cities. I dispensed a leaflet to locals and seemingly migrated people, questioning them about their forgotten identities and ancestry. Many of them donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have close connections with their genetic relatives. Travelling with an imaginary vehicle, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; JAN`bahan-kha-173995,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I was transported to the places where my lost progenitors and ancestors migrated to major cities. The vehicle traveled at each step as far as the keenest sight could see to confront the progenitors. I am interested in following my imagination, ignited by historic and migration records. This idea came from my own genetic history, 52
which encouraged me to make this project. Millions of orphan children and other people were moved to many Western countries during our liberation war in 1971. Many migrated in recent decades. I started primarily in the UK, but continued investigating in other cities such as Singapore, Amsterdam, Yokohama/Tokyo and Dubai. In 2011, my project in New York will probably be the last, the nucleus and extensive part in organized way.
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2003
CHIMERA
Plan and design for ‘Chimera with ‘JAN`bahan-khn’ at the 11th Cairo International Art Biennial 2008, Egypt 220 x 550 x 250 cm
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CHIMERA
JAN`bahan-kha-173995 Object made of wood, Layapa oil painting, motor and device with power on 58 x 27 x 30 cm
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CHIMERA
Video clips of performance in Singaporte and Tokyo Duration of video: 45 minutes loop
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CHIMERA
Video clips of performance in the U.K. and the Netherlands Duration of video: 45-minute loop
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CHIMERA
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Objects from performance in the U.K. and the Netherlands
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Soaked Dream
This sculpture-and-process-oriented-photography addresses social hope through personal encounters and stories where poetry and pragmatism meet. The project responds to contemporary people’s lives and dreams in Busan, which is the most promising city in Korea. I re-constructed a full-scale contemporary version of childhood among Busanese people whose vision of future dreams are viewed through their children and in themselves. “Soaked dream” is a rebirth of collective hope and dreams that children and their families would like to see through the green eyeglasses towards the ocean. Primarily I started in Bangladesh and Japan, where children and 64
family have different perspectives of dreams, but gradually I made in several countries.
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20X X
SOAKED DREAM
Styrofoam, FRP, Layapa Painting for sculpture, photograph and video
Act # 1: Sculpture at the Gwangalli Sea Beach. The green sculpture of the eye-glass will stand at the sea beach at eye-level. The final size would be approximately 5 meters by 5 meters or larger (depending on the situation or reality). It would be made of FRP, if the artwork is displayed outdoors. It will face towards the sea so that people, tourists, and children can see the ocean through the big eyeglass. There would be many small glasses attached with the big glass. These small eye-glasses will invite the visitor to wear them to see the ocean through new fresh “Busanic Dream.” I wish to invite seven (a lucky number) families who have children, who dream to build up their lives and country for their futures – their families also help their dreaming. 66
Act # 2: The 7 photographs and video document the 7 families with their children and other willing visitors. The documentation will be displayed at the Busan Museum of Modern Art.
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SOAKED DREAM
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SOAKED DREAM
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SOAKED DREAM
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Narrative as Anti-Mythology
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By Akira Tatehata
The works of Firoz Mahmud give us a strange sensation that a unique fictitious world is linked to an ordinary realistic space. It comes from his own combined method, the collaboration of bricolage technique and painting, but it must be also deeply related to the social environment of Dhaka where Firoz formed himself as an artist. The elements which compose Firoz’s installations, such as wood-carved sculpture, readymade objects, paintings hang on the wall or video images, are quite fragmental and because in large part they are combined arbitrarily, they do not create stories with particular plots. This is the reason why his installations, as a whole, deeply reflect the culture of his origin, which is filled with diverse energy while containing contradiction and confusion. The use of mass media, such as newspapers and TV news, as a sort of conceptual metaphor, rather verifies that his critical imagination relies deeply on the reality of his life in Bangladesh. However, what is most prominent is the green color which dominates his entire work. The green is the color of Bangladesh’s national flag and naturally it is a symbol of his cultural identity with ambivalent feelings. Of course Firoz does not bury himself in the place of his origin nor reject it by keeping himself away. He just stares at a chaotic yet fascinating scene with a calm gaze with a little humor and irony. An installation as a site to make fragments with various meanings float. By being an anti-mythology device, Firoz’s works rather open up before us the possibility of richer narratives.
フィロズ・マハムドの作品は、 特異なフィクションの世界が自ずと日常的な現実 の空間に繋がっているような不思議な感触を有している。 それはブリコラージ
ュ的な手法と絵画の共存というフィロズ独自の複合的な方法から来るものだ が、 また彼がアーティストとしての自己形成をしたダッカの社会環境とも深く関
わっているに違いない。
彼のインスタレーションを構成する要素は、 木彫りの彫像であれ、 レディメイ
ドのオブジェであれ、壁に掛けられたタブローであれ、 あるいはビデオの画面 であれ、 イメージとしてはいずれも極めて断片的であり、 しかもそれぞれが多分
に恣意的に組み合わせられていて、 特定の筋書きをもった物語を発生させるも
のではない。 だがそれゆえにこそ、 インスタレーションの総体として、 多くの矛盾
と混乱をはらみながらも雑多なエネルギーに満ちている、 彼の出自の文化をよ り深く反映しているともいえるだろう。新聞やテレビ・ニュースなどの大衆的な
メディアが一種のコンセプチュアルなメタファーとして導入されているのも、 か
えって彼の批評的想像力がバングラディシュの生活の現実に深く依拠したも のであることを証している。
しかし何よりも印象的なのは、作品の全体を支配する緑の色調であろう。 バ
ングラディッシュの国旗の色でもある緑は、 当然ながらフィロズにとってアンビ バレントな思いを伴った文化的アイデンティティの象徴である。 もちろん彼は
出自の場所に埋没するわけでもなければ、否定的に突き放すわけでもない。 た
だいささかのユーモアとアイロニーを伴った冷静な眼差しで、 その混沌とした、
しかしそれだけに大いに蠱惑的でもある光景を見据え続けているのである。 さ まざまな意味の断片を浮遊させる場としてインスタレーション――。 フィロズ の作品はそのようないわば反神話的な装置であることによって、 むしろより豊 かなナラティブの可能性を私たちの前に切り開いてみせているのだ。
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MAnifeSTATION/ Layer Report 27, 27
This cross-media installation project considers new uses for everyday materials, producing poignant desires and humorous reflections of society. I caution that one should consider my work not as an aggregate of referents, but instead as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a bodily expulsion of influence and impulse performed in the act of making.â&#x20AC;? As such, these works are more the traces of artistic processes with materials to integrate into other forms, resulting from the dynamics of experimentation and discovery, rather than static representations. Yet it is precisely representational content that distances me from the tropes of virile form-giver. The installation is a series of objects, paintings and videos. It is based on socio-politics and myths. The videos and paintings all symbolize 78
auspicious aspects of manifestation in an elite-political society. These concepts are taken from the editorial section of a daily newspaper. The balls, distorted colored flag, rigid prodigal son, fragile ladder, stuffed boot, green-painted flower, layapa paintings, all recall antipathy of speech or words proclaimed in the media. These installations challenge the viewer to approach objects in ways different from their intended uses.
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2005
MAnifeSTATION/ LAYER REPORT 27, 27
Vol #1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Installation view at Setagaya Arts Foundation and Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo. Layapa painting, objects, video installation, and 99 text slide projection on green dekoboko board.
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MAnifeSTATION/ LAYER REPORT 27, 27
(below) Boromia & Chotomia Made of FRP and Layapa Painting
(opposite) Detail of Boromia & Chotomia
Motherland Rice on paper
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2005
MAnifeSTATION/ LAYER REPORT 27, 27
(below) Layer Report
(opposite) MAnifeSTATION (Black Painting)
4 of 90 slides projected on painted board.
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed over wood panel
Wooden board size: 180 x 90 cm
300 x 230 x 3.2 cm (diptych)
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Additional Projects
ANTAGONISTS [..OF BORO-SHAHEBS] t DISTINCTION t AGE 9TH AT THE FAR ASIA PACIFIC t BELIEF = BE LIVE t SENTIENT HOMOLOGY 86
t GREEN DELTA t LEVEL ID t RECITATION 9-01 t X&N BTTBTTTBTTBBBTTT`B...,
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ANTAGONISTS
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2007
DISTINCTION (Tokyoese Anthropology) Gallery TV screen was set for showing to outside public during the exhibition.
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DISTINCTION
eGG Wood, oil layapa painting, wine glass, epoxy, hardener, plastic, mahogany, wire, medical equipment (scissor, bandage, pain killer pill, thermometer) 22.2 x 20.45 cm
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2006
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AGE 9TH AT THE FAR ASIA PACIFIC REGION
Installation exhibited at 3rd Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Tokamachi, Nigata, Japan
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AGE 9TH AT THE FAR ASIA PACIFIC REGION
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2009
BELIEVE = BE LIVE
Fire drawing locatied at OZU Zona Artigianale, Monteleone Sabino, Rome Wood, fire, petroleum, Italian horizon 1000 x 800 cm
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BELIEVE = BE LIVE
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BELIEVE = BE LIVE
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2009
SENTIENT HOMOLOGY
Installation at Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;09 (Dynamo Art Project) Double-channel video 24-minute loop
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SENTIENT HOMOLOGY
Installation view at Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;09 (Dynamo Art Project) 16-minute loop
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On The Work of Firoz Mahmud and/or Joseph Conrad
By Jeremiah Day
In Albert Memmi´s The Colonizer and the Colonized, a sociologic typology of life in the colonies of North Africa, the shortest section is for the “Just Colonizer.” According to Memmi, the “Just Colonizer” does not exist; the just man either returns from the colony or stays and is corrupted. Along these lines I used to consider moving to Ireland, where the vague majority of my geneaology returns.
We are sick. We invented technology!” ..... Two dancers had worked a long time trying to make a piece about the Arab-Israeli confict. They had done months of research, discussions, and rehearsal, trying to come up some structure or idea to present their thoughts.
..... After an art/political event, I stood talking with two other young men, both art students, one Black, one Latino. I´m white.
In the final performance they came up with, they start miming the media terms for the situation. “I´m a camp!”
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The Latino one said “The earth, the mother, had four sons. There was the Yellow one, the Black one, the Brown one, and the White one. Now, one of the sons is sick, and is trying to rape the mother, and the other three must step in and—”
“I´m a bulldozer!” 109
They push each other.
“I bet I can guess which one is the sick one,” I interrupted, “ but don´t you think if the Aztecs or the African kings had guns and ships they would have taken over Europe and done the same things?”
“I´m a settlement!”
The Black guy, he was from the south, he paused and looked at me with respectful credulity, as if he was hearing something he was familiar with but went contrary to all his experience on the matter.
“I´m a suicide bomber!” He jumps up and backward in a high arc, suspended for a moment before coming down on his chest.
“I´m a bomb!” She jumps up and shakes.
She pauses. Looks at him. “Yes, I´ve heard that theory before.” A beat passes. Later I told a political science professor this story, and he said “Yes! Exactly!
Beat. He gets up. She says, “That´s not real.” “Of course it´s not real!” he cries. ..... Arundati Roy has stated she has the right to criticize the government of my country, the United States, because she resides within the American Empire. 110
..... I was driving cross-country. I was 18, and had had my license to drive just a few months. I was driving with someone I´d never met before, my friend´s foster sister. I was a little in love with my friend and that helps explain how I was so receptive to the idea of driving cross country with her foster sister who I´d never met before. The sister was Indian, Native American, Mohawk. My friend had suggested her foster sister because she was always “up for that kind of thing”, and it worked out because both her foster sister and I had only one place we really wanted to go – Badlands. I wanted to go because somehow it sounded so cool and important, and she wanted to go to the nearby Indian - Native American - Sioux, Reservation. She was
involved with American Indian Movement, AIM, the political group trying to preserve the traditional way of life of the Indians, or the aboriginal people of North America. She wanted to meet a Lakota Medicine Man, or Shaman and ask him to come to the east coast, to the Piaute Reservation, because all their Medicine Men were dead, and they needed help. When we crossed the border into South Dakota, my friend´s foster sister, who was my friend as well by then, had to pull over and let me drive, she was crying so much. All around us were fields and fields of Soy Beans. I imagined she was imagining how it had been the bufallo heards, the teepees, everything. We got to the park around nightfall and got a motel. The next morning we drove through the park onto the reservation, getting lost. There were no fixed boundaries between Badlands National Park and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, maybe there are now, and the only sign we came across, excited as we saw it in the distance, as we came closer to it it was illegible, shot out with bullet holes. Eventually we passed a sign saying we were at the state line with Nebraska so we headed back. We found one of the small towns in the reservation eventually and asked for directions to this Shaman´s house. Each person we asked said the didn´t know him. My friend´s foster sister said she knew they all knew him, but wouldn´t tell us, either because we were outsiders, with Massachusets license plates, or because I was white. Eventually we found someone who, after some explaining, told us where to go. We found the trailer, but no one was there. We waited a bit and a truck came up and a man in his fifties or sixties with a baseball cap got out. He
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came over and said he´d been expecting us. I don´t remember what I said to that. “So, you in college, son?” he asked me. “Yes, sir.” I said. “You gonna get a P.H.D., son?” “I don´t know,” I said. I was just starting my second year at UCLA and getting a doctorate seemed a long way away. “Because I could use a P.H.D. around here.” “Yeah?” I was excited. 112
“Yeah, I could use a P.H.D. for right over there.” He paused and gestured to the expansive plains to his right. Perhaps some archaelogical work, I thought. “Well, I don´t know, but if I do...” “Yeah, I could sure use one, for the bufallo.” “Huh?” “Yeah, the bufallo keep running through. Running through right there...” He paused. “Need to build a fence. Need a Post Hole Digger. You gonna come back here and build a fence for me, son?”
Later, we sat next to his trailer, in a kind half-done lean-to, with tree limbs over a thin wooden frame. We sat around a green plastic card table, for poker or blackjack. There was some negotiation, because he would come, but he really wanted to fly, rather than take a train, and my friend wasn´t sure if she could raise the money. There were a few chickens, they kept coming up to me and trying to peck at my leg, but then he´d say some words in Lakota and they´d go away. Also it was quite windy, and my friend had to talk loud to be heard over the wind which even rattled the tree limbs above us. When the man spoke however, he spoke quite quietly, because when he opened his mouth the wind died away completely. That evening, close to twilight, we went to Wounded Knee, the site of the famous massacre. There´s a mass grave on top of a small mound, with a stone list inscribed with some of the names of the Lakota killed by the US Army. There two women selling totems there, and as I stood on the top of the mound, my friend talked with them, told them of our trip to meet the Medicine Man, and they gave her one of the totems as a gift. Later my friend put it on the rearview mirror of my truck, where it stayed for the next ten years until I sold my truck because I was moving to Europe. Now it´s on the wall in my bedroom in my grandmother´s house. Even now, I can imagine very very clearly the massacre at Wounded Knee. The winter day, the blood in the snow, the chaotic running, the bodies accumulating. I´ve seen pictures. .....
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Sometimes, in the US, when you say “Indian”, someone will ask “Dots or feathers?”
Jeremiah Day is an artist and his work spans photography, installation and story-telling, and employs intensive research to establish connections between himself and places of public significance. He graduated from UCLA in 1997
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and from 2000 to 2002 was Artist-in-Residence at Beyond Baroque Literary / Art Center, in Los Angeles. Besides Beyond Baroque, his site-specific projects
Firoz Mahmud´s “Immigration and Migration” makes me think of inexorable demons crossing the seas, already dead. One has a plastic bag around his head, as if he was murdered, cheaply, perhaps in a mass killing of dissidents in Latin America, planned and trained by the C.I.A.. This one leads the advance. They are skeletons – I told Firoz about a phrase they use in American politics – skeletons in the closet. To have some means that there are things in your past you try and keep secret.
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This scene unfolds in an expanse from artifacts suspended on the wall. Artifacts of a performance, a TV camera coated in gold-flake, a strange plastic suit on which words are printed, one prominent phease is “When is your home?”, also the title of the performance, as an invitation on the wall, informs. Bones remind me of pirates. “Pirates of The Caribean” is playing in the theaters in Europe now. It´s based on a ride at Disney Land. I´m going to see it tommorrow night with my father and his second family who are visiting from California. It will be the fourth time my half-sister´s seen it, but she´s eager to see it again.
have been presented at the California Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Public Library, in Massachusets. His most recent published article can be found in Surface Tensions, a book of contemporary projects and writings on site-specificity. He was an artist-in-residence (2003~04) at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, in Amsterdam.
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2003
GREEN DELTA
Installation with lighting. Image changes from morning to night. ProjectruimteOost, Rijksakademie VB Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Mixed media â&#x20AC;&#x201C; painting, wood, light, metal
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GREEN DELTA
Title ProjectruimteOost, Rijksakademie VB Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Media: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dimentions xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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LEVEL ID White dress with text, leaflet with text, mirror, video camera, bag full of evidence, map, photo, marked and shaped mask with topping and shoe.
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2002
RECITATION
Installation at LA Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 12 musical tripods, 12 wooden boxes, 12 annual clocks, alarm, sound, glass, CG print, drawing and painting. Installation dimensions vary. Each box: 33 x 47 cm
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2002
X & N / btTTtTTb
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Layapa Art 126
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Layapa Art
My layapa paintings depict the subjects amidst the myth, history, imperial expression, and unremarkable moments of everyday existence. It sometimes documents the secret lives of Mughal emperor and historical people, Japanese namazue or Yukiyue. My luxurious and meticulous style of rendering with the Layapa Technique is partially enchanted by my interest in the significance of antiqueness, and the passage of time itself. In my paintings, I mostly use a stencil technique using masking tape and oil paint. ‘ Layapa’ is the term I use for applying paint in a manner similar to anointing or plastering. The reason is that traditionally, people in the countryside of Bangladesh and rural India often live in 128
clay huts. Women of the family apply many layers of thick-liquid mud, mixed with cow dung very meticulously on the walls and floor. They dream for their good will while rendering mud. There are also some beliefs and philosophies behind this tradition. I paint on canvas or on objects with ‘Layapa techniques’ (anointing or plastering) similar to the way Bangladeshi rural women render with mud on their hut.
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2010
TRAITOR OF FAITH [PLOT 1 #SHIRAJ & MIR]
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 71.7” x 107.2” x 1.2” / 182.2 x 272.4 x 3 cm (diptych)
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2010
TRAITOR OF FAITH [PLOT 2 #SHIRAJ & MIR]
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 118.1” x 90.6” x 1.3” / 300 x 230 x 3.2 cm (diptych)
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2010
DESOLATION (WAITING FOR)
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 65.4” x 51.2” x 1.3” / 166.2 x 130 x 3.2 cm
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2011
THE START OF THE END OF THE REIGN OF THE REGION OF SUBCONTINENT: DURING THE TIME OF MY FOREFATHERS
(left lie in battle at plassey) Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 64.4” x 52.8” x 1.2” / 163.5 x 134 x 3cm (diptych)
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2011
JUBRAJ (AT WAR)
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 76.4” x 51.8” x 1.2” / 194 x 131.5 x 3 cm
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2011
LAMENTATION {FOR KING AND QUEEN}
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 57.7” x 36.9” x 1.4” / 146.6 x 93.7 x 3.6 cm
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ENTHRONE-OF AORONGOZEB
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) ---- x ---- x ---- cm (diptych)
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BRAZEN KING AT MIDNIGHT
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) ---- x ---- x ---- cm (diptych)
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LAST DITCH (OF AORONGOZEB)
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) ---- x ---- x ---- cm (diptych)
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HON 2 (FANTAST)
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) ---- x ---- x ---- cm (diptych)
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QUEEN CONSORT
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) ---- x ---- x ---- cm (diptych)
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2008
BRAZEN WHIP
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 182 x 185 cm
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2008
BRAZEN WHIP AT MIDNIGHT
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 92 x 93 x 2.3 cm
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2008
MAJESTIC CUT (RED & GREEN CONFRONTATION)
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 260 x 167 x 3.5 cm
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2008
SHARING TASK
Oil Layapa Painting on shaped canvas stressed on wood panel (Stencil Technique) 182 x 186 x 4.5 cm
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TWO SEASONS
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FINAL MINISTERING
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FINAL MINISTERING 2
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FOUR SEASONS
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MANIFESTATION (BLACK PAINTING)
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KHEYA PAR
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Urgency of Proximate Drawing (NiNKi:UoPD)
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NiNKi Art Project Rescued Stardom
“Ninki” is a Japanese word which means “Popular.” The ‘ Ninki Art Project’ of drawings and drawings on photographs consists of numerous archetypal images of popular celebrities in vague appearances. Their activities and character are anarchistic and individualized. The popular celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Zinedine Zidan, Diego Maradona, Shoib Akhter (the World’s Fastest Cricket Bowler), Asashoryu (25-time Top Division Sumo Champion in Japan) are all popular icons during the span of their career, but all have been blemished by controversy for one reason or another. 194
I focus on celebrities in excited, playful, sporty and happy moments. I draw remarkable lines where they are about to fall or in moments where they demonstrate hard gestures in the photographs. Their idolized appearances are highlighted by protective line drawings that display an awareness of the performative ethos of iconic expression. The lines underneath the falling position imply the stardoms can’t fall down from the gestures and positions that they are held in.
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2009 - 2009
RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
Black and white photograph, gel-based rollerball pen, felt-tip, correction fluid and acrylic paint Size of photographs vary from 20 x 30 cm to 150 x 200cm
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RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
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RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
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RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
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2009
SALVAGER / TSUKAIBOU
Sculpture to correspond with the drawing image. Wood, acrylic paint, bond Size of the object ‘Tsukaibou’ 60 x 60 x 40 cm
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“The objects of Salvager/Tsukaibou are 3-D models that protect or support the celebrities from their position in the photographs.”
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SALVAGER / TSUKAIBOU
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PLEASE PROVIDE CAPTION
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2009
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RESCUED STARDOM
Installation view. Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art / MOCA Hiroshima, Japan
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RESCUED STARDOM
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RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
Installation view. Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art / MOCA Hiroshima, Japan
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RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
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RESCUED STARDOM, SUMO ASASHORYU
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