Title: Metaphor 
Year: 2014-2015 
Size: Variable 
Medium: Charcoal and shoe polish on paper 
 
Description:  Instead of using geometric forms, the Santals are inclined to organic forms. Their houses are fluid in nature with oval shaped doors, their interiors have organic shaped spaces, as if trying to blend in the nature. This series is inspired by ‘Khetra Puja’ one of the most important rituals of the Santals that is concerned with fertility and connected to the moon cycle. This is why the round hollow often came into this series. In this series, I wanted to represent the materials that are associated with their daily life. 

*The Santal or Santhal,are an ethnic group native to India and Bangladesh in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal and Bhutan. The Santals mostly speak Santali, the most widely spoken of the Munda languages.

My charcoal series is based on their culture and their history. The reason I have chosen charcoal is simply because that is a raw material that is easily available locally (there is also coal mine in the north of Bangladesh, in Rangpur area, near to the Santal villages). Historically known as Varendra or Barind, the north of Bangladesh has a rich history, dating back to the Maurya period (300 BC) and has a distinct reddish brown colour. This soil is very important to the Santals, the earliest settlers of the region. That is why I used shoe polish colour- which amazingly also depicts the colour of the area’s soil as well as a very common polish colour to be found. I initially tried to use the soil itself but after the failed attempt I opted for the shoe polish.

# sketches, #charcoal, #charcoalonpaper

Metaphor

An internal plague came and took away my life - my art! 

During the time of my plague I thought I lost my artistic self. For almost two years I couldn't draw, paint. I was sure the artist in me was dead.

But like every pandemic better days come. I waited and then came the better days.

I lost a lot but now trying to build myself up again. 
Every day, I keep drawing a little bit of my traumas that haunted me for over two years. 

During the pandemic, I started working on the series 'Plague' to document the memories of my internal plague. 

All works are done with gel pen and ballpoint pen on paper. 


During this plague of my own, I met another person suffering from her own trauma, her own plague. Together, we slowly worked to overcome them. Me - by spending time in the garden and trying not to be hard on myself and her- embracing her artistic self. Both of us helped each other to express our pain through our art.  

We would share our work to each other and discuss about the reason behind the particular drawings, poems, writing. This has helped us understand our own insecurities and mental disturbance and fight against it. 

So we decided to publish the works of ours as #correspondence to each other.

Her link: https://www.artconnect.com/projects/insides-of-me-turning-over

The motifs such as the tic-tac-toe is used as the symbol for the game against the plague. Sometimes it wins and sometimes I. But one day it will be me who will win all the games. 

Plague

Title: The Forgotten War
Year: 2015-2016
Size: Variable
Medium: Charcoal and shoe polish on paper

The images represent the wars of the Santals. During the reign of Pala kings in Bengal, the Santals fought against the Pala kings to live freely in their areas. The drawings- almost pre-historic forms represent that war against the Pala king to gain back their territory. Like the pre-historic people, they fought riding the bulls, used the spears and bow & arrows against the fast horses, elephants and advanced weaponry of the 8th century. After the victory, they reigned about 39 years.
They were the 1st communist kingdom (if you look from the western perspective). But the war was never glorified and not even discussed. But this war that challenged the authority has inspired me to start the whole series on Santals.

*The Santal or Santhal,are an ethnic group native to India and Bangladesh in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal and Bhutan. The Santals mostly speak Santali, the most widely spoken of the Munda languages. 

My charcoal series is based on their culture and their history. The reason I have chosen charcoal is simply because that is a raw material that is easily available locally (there is also coal mine in the north of Bangladesh, in Rangpur area, near to the Santal villages). Historically known as Varendra or Barind, the north of Bangladesh has a rich history, dating back to the Maurya period (300 BC) and has a distinct reddish brown colour. This soil is very important to the Santals, the earliest settlers of the region. That is why I used shoe polish colour- which amazingly also depicts the colour of the area’s soil as well as a very common polish colour to be found. I initially tried to use the soil itself but after the failed attempt I opted for the shoe polish.

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Saiyad Saif Ali