নরম অতিক্রমণ
(Tender Transgressions)

নরম অতিক্রমণ (Tender Transgressions) is a site specific installation which explores the concept of Bonna as the feminine form of bonno, meaning wild, untamable, and excessive, all words historically used to denigrate women’s sexuality. The large-scale work transforms nine columns that structurally hold up the building of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy into a jungle of anthropomorphic feminine forms. Meanwhile, a braid of 1001 used sarees collected by the artist from East and West Bengal, snakes through the columns and weaves together this borderless landscape.

The work materially references navapatrika, colloquially known as কোলা বউ), a Hindu practice common in Bengal where plants are wrapped in sarees and worshiped as embodiments of the goddess. Here, the plants being venerated are Banana, Rice and Taro, all dependent on excessive rainfall for growth and essential to the diets and economies of Bangladesh and West Bengal. Taro is also central to the cuisine and mythology of Hawaii, the artist’s hometown. While jute is used commonly to swaddle massive concrete constructions across South Asia to assist in curing, in the installation jute has been draped as adorning garments on concrete pillars. The transformation of rigid architectural supports into supple caryatids of cloth and crop, breaks down binaries of strong and soft, functional and decorative, necessity and excess.