Raga Rahman’s ‘Unfamiliar Affinity’ explores art, identity and belonging
The definition of art has evolved over decades and has reached the point where artists have the freedom to choose any medium for their artistic expression, as the primary aim of art is to evoke emotions in spectators. Thus, modern artists do not restrict themselves while expressing their thought processes to everyone. Aside from art created using traditional media, photography and multimedia art have become prominent forms of artistic practice.
Kala Kendra is currently hosting a unique multimedia exhibition titled “Unfamiliar Affinity”. This is a solo exhibition by a Bangladeshi-German photographer and multimedia artist based in Germany. At the opening ceremony, prominent artist Professor Lala Rukh Selim of the Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka, and architectural critic Kazi Khaleed Ashraf attended the inauguration ceremony, appreciating the artist’s skills in this particular genre of work.
Raga Rahman was born in Berlin, Germany, in 2000 and has been studying Photography in the Field of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig since 2022. She is currently living in Bangladesh as an intern at Goethe-Institut Dhaka. The artist says, “My work process is primarily research-driven, culminating in an essayistic, mixed-media form. I work with texts, videos, sounds, installations, and images. Rather than being purely academic, my research involves collecting stories, ideas, imagery, and other visual materials.” Raga prefers to ask difficult questions through her art and explores unfamiliar, unresolved concepts. This is how she tries to make sense of the intricacies of the world.
In 2023, Raga created a photo series that is being displayed at the exhibition. This series, called “Der Himmel ueber Dhaka” (The Sky upon Dhaka), is an array of photographs captured from different rooftops. According to Raga, in one of the world’s most densely populated cities with awful traffic, rooftops are among the few places that are like oases, offering serenity. The rooftop gardens are also a source of food and a catalyst for a better environment. She has spent hours observing people from above, thinking about their lives. She has seen blankets, mattresses, and lentils being dried, children learning roller skating, and senior citizens resting. The photographs are in black and white, with perfect framing and hierarchy of subjects. The compositions are balanced; some are symmetrical, some are asymmetrical, and some make the spectator curious about the photographer’s headspace.
Curator Wakilur Rahman, who is also Raga’s father, commented that in this exhibition we see a blend of multiple cultural influences into a cohesive sense of self. He added that her affinity towards both familiar and unfamiliar phenomena encourages visitors to reassess their perceptions of their surroundings.
“My Body is a Blanket” is a five-minute performance art video exploring the connection between inherited experiences and sentiments through the act of folding a blanket. It is a non-verbal act to describe something that has no vocabulary, something that has neither a clear beginning nor an end.
“Log Lady and Other Tales” is a 15-minute video of Raga’s research into plant language, during which she learned about scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose. This is a video essay of her understanding of interspecies communication between plants and humans, as trees are also sentient beings that hold wisdom and spirituality. The most interesting element of this exhibition is “The Wooden Choir”, a sound installation with wooden stems and speakers, where speculative sounds mimicking those of plants are made audible using synthesisers. The stems are laid out in a room, and visitors are encouraged to interact with the space physically. The aim is to listen to plant sounds in a playful manner, as they are just as alive as we are.
In summary, “Unfamiliar Affinity” offers a show with a flavour that is out of the box. It is a display of the deep connection of a person with their mixed heritage and culture. Raga has created a sense of identity through her visual narratives. Kala Kendra will run this exhibition until June 30. It will remain open daily from 4 pm to 8 pm.
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