Feminine: Tayeba Lipi's solo art exhibition at Bengal Gallery

"Man has traditionally attempted to characterise woman as an entity in two different forms - one as the obvious object of consumption, sexual enjoyment, erotic pleasure and means of reproduction and as the source of all evil, as witch and bad-spirit and others. The other as the fertility symbol, mother goddess, icon of beauty, divine-power (Shakti), the destroyer of evil and others. Thus, man has either put woman on a pedestal as something higher than him, or at a lower level as inferior to him. Tayeba Begum Lipi has studied these conflicting manifestations of the female entity at length and has gradually developed a feminist discourse of her own. To achieve this, she has traveled to different and remote areas, studied traditional arts done by women and had taken part in several interactive art activities around the globe. These experiences have provided her with a wider understanding of the issue and a variety of sources to explore" - eminent art critic Abul Mansur said this about Tayeba Begum Lipi. The fourth solo exhibition of Lipi titled 'Feminine' (Naritto) inaugurated at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in the capital on June 15 and will end on June 28. A total of 26 art works including an installation work are being exhibited in the show.

Suk-Bam Park, Ambassador of Korea Republic was present chief guest in the inauguration, while eminent artists Aminul Islam and social activist Khushi Kabir were present as special guests on the occasion.

Abul Mansur said, "The present exhibition showcases Lipi's works done in the recent years and is very conspicuously named 'Feminine,' with no attempt to hide her priority of concern. But these works, done in oil, acrylic and mixed-media, accompanied by one work of installation, seem to be at the same time a continuity of and a marked departure from her previous presentations. Whereas Lipi's earlier works displayed her feminist mind-set in a more direct and simplistic manner and mostly concerned about her own self, the present works demonstrate more developed convictions regarding the issue and her artistic vocabulary exploits and assimilates wider sources and linguistic traits. In recent times, traveled to Janakpur in Nepal near the Indo-Nepalese border, stayed and worked with the village womenfolk, and tried to understand and incorporate in her art the famous traditional art of Mithila. The present show includes a series of collaborative productions done with the womenfolk of Mithila and it seems that these works demand particular importance in the show."

Works of Lipi are self-finding and self-focused. She expressed her works with social activities, which are done, in the reality. Her art works are fantasy. In some of her works, she composed different features of our life around the life cycle of a central character like as drama. They asked themselves, they feel themselves. Face is the focal point in her works. She draws the present, but sometimes, historical period could be expressed in her works. She looks from the front view and slightly lower level.

When a traditional art which relies heavily on religion, myth and pastoral life-cycle and is done on specific purposes like rituals, festivals and marriages comes into contact with a contemporary art-form, which has no such purposes the result could be a mixed one. Either it could merely become an attributed decoration without any transmitting a different meaning. Lipi seems to be inspired by the vibrancy of colour and the richness of the decoration in Mithila art and tattooing done by the womenfolk on their body. She in fact has paintings and thus ushers a collaborative and interactive process between two very different art modes. Lipi, with a very specific understanding of her purpose, has not been carried away by the experience and succeeded in using the elements of an art rooted in religion and tradition to her own purpose of feministic message.

The 'Mithila' paintings, other works and the expressive installations, which comprise the present exposition, all display a kind of deconstruction of the female image. Most of them display an overt feminine charm and sexually, but shock us as well by the disintegration and distortion of the body and its unspecified relationship with other elements of the work, particularly the decorated images. The installation, in particular, with the disturbed image of the body, transmits an indistinct but powerful feeling, a realisation of a different sort.

In her present show, Lipi leads the viewers to a world of an uncomfortable splendour where the female images, in fragments or in entirely, present at the same time an extrinsic seductiveness and a bizarre expression and relationship with the whole. Thus, Lipi moves away from the commonplace and the predictable tendencies of our feminine art and adds a more concept-related spirit to the practice of it.