Continuum means a gradual transition, leaving no clear dividing line. The Bhumi Gallery presented a group exhibition with the title-‘Continuum’, the reason behind this name gets clear when visited.
The exhibition containing 60 artworks in total wasn’t named something provocative or any urgent calls as the title denotes what the three artists- Siddharth Talukdar, Karu Titas and Nazmul Haque Bappy wanted to convey. In a time when everything has become machinery, even art became digitalized and getting amalgamated, these artists revisited the traditional art forms and mediums such as-watercolor and acrylic.
The artworks of Karu Titas mostly abstract figurative captured the livelihood of the fishermen, waterbodies and Padma rivers, nature, streets and continuous changes of Dhaka city in his paintings- ‘ধূ ধূ পদ্মায়’, 'স্মৃতির মায়া', 'জীবন উৎসেবর মতো ',' জলজীবন', ‘শুভ্র’. Synchronizing to Karu Titas the artworks of rising artist Nazmul Haque Bappy caught the eyes with his traditional Chinese painting technique adaptation in presenting the beauty of Bangladeshi nature and livelihood of the people living near the waterbodies. He explored the emotions, perspective and contemporary world that is gradually changing over the vast changes in environment through his brushstrokes and color choices on rice paper. His ‘Majesty of the Heights’, ‘Echoes of the Mountains-9’ and ‘Whispers of Nature-I’, showcases the influence of traditional Chinese paintings.
Sixty works to judge and bring in one scale is difficult, as the ongoing art market highly favors trends and what will be fashionable in future, these artists took plausible approach to hold the beauty of nature that is slowly declining, which in today’s art seems unnoticed. Still the artists are bound to the traditional media rendering their creativity. The exhibition which may have been thought to be out of fashion became hit, as maximum artworks were sold out.
However, the fundamental idea remains true, and it's one that should be taken seriously beyond this one gallery visit: art's importance goes beyond aesthetics, it is a means of maintaining empathy, critical thinking, and cultural continuity that precisely make such things most difficult to hold onto. The attitude itself describes patience over spectacle, consistency over disruption is something Dhaka's gallery scene could use more of, regardless of whether every work in the show succeeds.
