Bangladeshi artist couple Ayesha Sultana and Nabil Rahman stayed in an old house in Kesavadasapuram in Thiruvananthapuram for seven weeks for an art residence program. During that time, he discovered the property left behind by the former residents of the House. The depth affected by these items, with an art exhibition, decided to pay tribute to their stay in the city, which have work prepared with materials found in the house.
This is the story behind footnotes, currently in the Neber Gallery. The showcase was inaugurated on 26 September and includes 38 works by Nabil and 16 by 16 Ayesha. This work employs a wide variety of media, including granite, handmade paper, old encyclopedia sheets, inscribed stones, papir-melodies and slabs of silicon.
Nabil Rahman | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Artists say that Nail’s cartilage is a series of encyclopedia pages, with abstract shapes made of ink, a comment on culture and society, the artists say. He explains, “Languages ​​come with their sets of nuances around their origin. And whoever controls the language controls the narratives of the society,” they explain. The artist tries to throw light on how information is broadcast in a society and how it is controlled. Says Nabil, “My process is shown in a personal unit and its reference, without saying more,” Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Bellas Arts Projects, Manila (Philippines), and so are shown in the same way. He has also worked as a freelance journalist.
Footnotes exhibition from cartilage | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In a task with title, later, he further removes illustrated elements on paper and works completely with red and blue ink spread. He recognizes this series of tasks as a step away from the text and “observes abstraction from far away. It is more than trying to think in its own way through a meaning.”
AFTERIMAGES from Footnotes Exhibition | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“Blind, it’s about ending the text. I don’t want to say anything directly; art means to instigate the idea or feeling,” the artist says, who was 10 years old when he moved to America.
Nabil displays several functions on handmade paper. In two tasks called Posulat, he forms a series, which arranges numeric sequences under each other. “Number or words are solid, but using them, you create abstraction rather than solid ideas made with recurrence and reorganization. It shows how things are re -written, and we feel that what we knew earlier was not true.”
Their other functions include scars, which are ink imprints of objects embossed on handmade paper; Later, a slab of granite found with a blade mark by nail, represents patterns or raids that cannot be repeated; Stone inscription, and so on.
Footnotes in exhibition and later. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Ayesha’s work attracts attention to the absence of a body, attempts to detect the body through impressions and gestures, which reminds of the momentary nature of life.
Ayesha Sultana | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Her work is a pair of suspended legs made of papier-muche hanging under the walls of the threshold gallery. This piece was designed by castinging its feet with the medium and using them to make a body impression in the gallery, Ayesha says, whose works are displayed in Riyadh Art Week and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Footnotes exhibition threshold | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“The first time I visited the gallery, I felt an appearance there. I imagined a full female body in this place, but then, when I started preparing for the show, we decided to choose to suggest only one appearance to the lower body,” the artist says.
His work gestures are a series of 12 paintings of abstract ideas, which he finished during the period of residence. Ayesha takes an impressive attitude in using shapes and figures to express its feelings.
Parts of the series of gestures in the footnotes exhibition. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“My job is based on sourcing material and is completely turning it into something else. It is that I keep myself out of there or communicate with the world,” she says.
Instinct, Web Installation in Footnotes Exhibition | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The instinct is a web 91 cm diameter, built with silver, wood and nylon. Ayesha says, “Web suggests different things. Other artists have also worked with using the web, spider as some symbolic representation. Nature is found in my work.”
His other functions include fold, a human body impression on silicon; And chords made using the medium of copper.
Published – October 06, 2025 03:39 pm IST