08 Feb Drawing Room tales

Drawing room Tales- It is an artist’s attempt of a research-oriented work. Since the house is 400 years old, so many things are missing like few rooms do not have the rooftop. In one of its rooms that was used as a sitting room quite a long time ago, the artists have created an atmosphere by using some old stuff of that house like a chair, a hairbrush, or a mirror although that room doesn’t have a roof and plasters came out of the wall.

The artists have organized a storytelling session in that room where some of the stories of the landlords and their downfalls have been disclosed. Artist Piank Banik focused on the landlords’ political and social aspects like how one landlord gained wealth, how he lost it, and how his family members left the place in what circumstances. There were some landlords who had to die alone in their palaces. Such stories are read to the audience by an artist, local people, and a family member. We see an atmosphere that has a feeling of a night in the village where electricity hasn’t reached yet. People are reading by the help of torch light/hurricane. It’s an evening with the local people sharing the stories of landlords, politics of money and displacement of power and its consequences.

Title: Drawing Room Tales
Artist: Pinak Banik
Time and place: Third Episode of UORNTO Residential Art Exchange Program at Shatkhira 2014
Content developed by Towhid Islam Khan 
(URONTO artist Community)