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Exhibition

Print making with folk themes

Muslim Mia's solo with 'Lalon'and birds

Fayza Haq
Muslim Mia's exhibition at Alliance Francaise was a delight of prints. The reason why Muslim Mia went into print making was because he was fascinated by the divisions in the details of the art form. He himself goes in for woodcut. Having qualified from the Institute of Fine Arts in 1983, he has gone in for print making in a big way, taking folk culture as his subject. In this exhibition he concentrates on the ochin pakhi (the unknown bird) that wants to break out of the cage.
In one frame he has a do-tara (a
two stringed musical instrument) and a bird and also the equipment for smoking hashish, a common pastime among Bauls. The blue
and green bird is an imaginary one. In the next print we find the bird again but here it has a human face and iron nails pinned on its head, while a magician tries to cast a spell on it. The portrait of a bearded Baul is brought in the next print. The three-pronged weapon in his hand is twisted into the form of a bird. Another print carries the same imaginary bird with the face of a woman, which is surrounded by white buntings of peace. We see the bird shape again in an elongated brown form, and it is held in a cage from which it is trying to get free. Another print presents a bird which is a part of the ornamental end of the do-tara.
A flute has been brought in to another print; forms of scattered nails and sweeps of brown complete the semi abstract depiction. The unknown bird is seen again in a form of cage created by sweeps of oval lines. A delicate, delightful green bird, complete with crest and tail, is seen against forms of floral leaves, with Lalon's portrait in shades of emerald at one end.
The artist, who has kept birds as pets since he was a child, has always been intrigued by them. The Lalon element enters his work as that genre of folk music has also always fascinated him. Bengali calligraphy has been twisted and elaborated in Image in print and here too abstraction has been brought in. Taking the ornamental end of a do-tara and combining it with forms in brown, beige and
blue completes yet another semiabstraction.
There are 54 such prints in all in which the artist has played with burnt amber, burnt sienna, black, beige and green. Talking about the difficulties that he faces while making the prints, Muslim Mia says, 'When I began work 20 years back, it was difficult to carve the wood and put the necessary colours in it. The registration on paper is another problem. I work as a chief designer at the Gazipur Security Printing Press and concentrate on my prints in the breaks of my office schedules. I also bring home my work. I have a machine for my printing both at home
and in the office.' He says he has been influenced by Md Kibria, Safiuddin, Rafiqun Nabi and Monirul Islam who have guided him during his student days. He has studied overseas too, concentrating on metal engravings in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and the Netherlands. He remains fascinated by the various techniques of print making.
Muslim Mia, who has held four solo exhibitions, has taken part in group exhibitions in India, Japan, England, USA and Bangladesh. He has won three awards in Japan and Bangladesh.