DHAKA just hosted the largest-ever photography festival in Asia. The extravaganza has been sewn up with a number of good shows, on wide ranging subjects and issues, at different venues in the city. The show titled "My Work", by Gohn Kippin from Great Britain was hosted by Gallery Chitrak from December 17 to 31 at Dhanmondi. Held as part of the ongoing Chobi Mela, this episode too, like other shows, served as a significant part of the entire exhibition.
"My Work" is all about presenting the cultural construct called the 'landscape'. Whilst working within a broadly familiar genre and tradition "My Work" lends particular consideration to revealing social, political and cultural issues and histories. Gohn Kippin is interested in the debates, framing representations of the actual world and attempts to define and create developments of the documentary-style photography. His photos have colour. The significant titles are 'Migrant Labour' and 'Nepal by Nepalis'. All the photographs are life-size pictures. The enormous size lends these photographs a distinction and has made them different from other works on display at other venues.
Pictures at this exhibition are
colourful with brilliance of light that easily captivate the viewers' attention.
'The Three Graces' snapped in 1996 from the National Measure of Scotland, Edinburgh, was put on show in the first section of the gallery. It shows a sculpture of three female figures made of white stone. These three figures stand entwining each other speaks about an exquisiteness of womanliness. The shape, lines and curves of the woman figure, distinctly visible in the work, suggest how beautiful can woman be.
An aesthetic appeal of the bodily beauty has been retained through the artist's expertise. An implication is evident that a sculptor overwhelmed the photographer.
'Landscape with Animal' photographed in 1987 from Sunderland shows animal figures along with other bright objects.
Three photos called 'The Secret Intelligence of the Silent', 'Intelligence', and the 'Secret Project' an interplay of secrecy and silence against the backdrop of big open field, forlorn buildings and birds laying eggs in secret.
Traffic parking and movement have been wonderfully projected in 'Car Park Police' photographed in 1994 from Metro centre, Gateshead. An honest diligence, commitment and professionalism of traffic police in ensuring a chaos-free traffic points at the wild disorder and mismanaged traffic chaos in Dhaka. The picture of thousands of vehicles kept in order further hints at the inadequacy of traffic management system and, above all, at losing professional honesty of Bangladeshi traffic police.
"Hidden" snapped in from National Park, Northumberland in 1990 shows an abandoned fighter aircraft, crashed presumably in a fight. The title indicates the hidden bullet injury received inside the aircraft whose body has been pierced by anti-aircraft guns. "Moonrise over tees side" a shot taken from Teesside river in 1992, captures a movement of divine beauty of nature at a moonlit night on the bank of the river. Unearthly beauty of the rising moon over the river Teesside would transcend one to another world for a while.
'Circling', snapped in 1994 holds a view of an industrial location in Monkwearmouth, Colliery, Sunderland. Hardware factories have been captured in it alongside a criss-crossed rail line.
'Aphrodite' is another shot that glorifies Goddess-like beauty of a woman, taken from Cumbrea in 1997. This is a picture that shows a full bloomed woman of unparalleled beauty coming out of a shell in which pearls are seen scattered around her, as it were, to make the woman surpass even their beauty.
"Landscape with Santa" shot in 1992 from Metro Centre, Gateshead displays the Santa followed by a procession of believers in a churchyard in a beautiful landscape.
The works displayed in the exhibition by Kippin are the fruits of a ten-year-long hard work. Half of these photos were taken from the north of England, but the exact locations have not been mentioned. Kippin, in his endeavour to tenure an image of
Britain, has chosen a range concerns and feels that it offers a view of Britain and British-ness.
Gallery Chitrak was quite a beautiful corner in Dhanmondi where both photographer and onlookers found an intimate atmosphere for artistic interaction.