No One Home

A month-long solo exhibition of installations, drawings and videos titled ‘No One Home’ by APT artist Tayeba Begum Lipi will begin today at Bengal Art Lounge, Gulshan in the city. Social activist Khushi Kabir and Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Bangladesh Dr. Thomas Prinz will jointly inaugurate the exhibition  today at 6pm. ‘No One Home’ is a remarkably coherent exhibition in which Tayeba Begum Lipi continues to explore the themes that have long haunted her - the nature of womanhood, the place of women in society, the ephemeral nature of life - in a characteristically candid endeavor.

The exhibition ‘No One Home’ presents a series of objects of women daily life made of safety pins and stainless steel razor blades: heeled shoes, hand bags, a sewing machine, a bathtub and many other things. Displayed in a gallery space, these personal objects create a feeling of hollow intimacy for their owner is nowhere to be seen. The viewer is left with the strange impression of peering through an empty apartment: the lights are on, but there is no one home.

The use of stainless steel razor blades has been a long-standing practice for the artist, and has become over the years her signature technique. In a witty endeavor, Tayeba Begum Lipi assembles artworks with sharp materials originally conceived to cut and tear apart. Although metallic blades are commonly associated to a masculine use, the artist further adds to the paradox by creating feminine and delicate objects. For Tayeba Begum Lipi, razor blades are further associated with the feminine by vivid childhood memories. Coming from a very large family where a newborn was frequently expected, she has clear recollections of blades being sanitized in boiling water and then used by mid-wives to separate the child from the mother. The blade thus becomes a symbol of women’s strength and resilience.

The exhibition also showcases series of pencil drawings representing skin and hairs under various forms. Alluding to the aging process and its physical consequences on the body, these poignant works deal with womanhood, transition and ultimately with mortality; issues that are both very personal and of universal concern. The vicissitudes of time are further explored in 2-channel video in which the artist is seen cleaning up her ancestors’ graveyard on the family property. This work delves on the tension between what is and what was, inviting the public to introspection.