Jhaal Muri artwork on diaplay at Radius Center gallery, the exhibition opened on 8th November.

Here is a catalog of the work by the artists, Kuhu, Rokeya, Smita and Ujwala. This is an incomplete listing, more to be added as soon as I get back to Dhaka and can photograph / upload the rest.

KUHU

ROKEYA

SMITA

UJWALA

ANIL [some of my photpgraphs on display]

See here and here for previous related posts.

11/13/08 update: 

• Read a  write-up about the exhibition in The Daily Star. Or pull up a screen-shot here.
• In the Zimbabwe Star.
• In News from Asia.
• Bangladesh News Network.

       Jhaal Muri

An Art & Photography Exhibition on Bangladesh Street Culture by

Rokeya ~ Kuhu  ~ Smita ~ Ujwala ~ Anil

His Excellency Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh,
will inaugurate the event.

8th November 2008 at 7:00 PM

 Bay's Galleria 5th Floor 57 Gulshan Avenue Dhaka Bangladesh

The exhibition will remain open 8th to 23rd November 2008

A few months ago artists friends came up with with an idea to do a fun project and exhibit our collective work. The idea was, to go out into the streets and do a series of photographs [market scenes, street-portraits...] and they would paint from these photo references. Not as copies, but interpretations in each of their vastly varied painting styles. It sounded great and a lot of fun. A few outings, and we had a large collection of images to select from. Three of the artists - Rokeya, Smita and Ujwala - featured in my SoFoBoMo 2008 book project and the fourth is Kuhu.

Things have come together, and the photo prints and the painting and artwork are now almost all ready to be exhibited - starting 8th November 2008 at Radius Centre's art gallery. We are all very excited about the outcome from this casual project, especially because it gives a slightly different viewpoint of «street life» of Dhaka. We've come back with an imagery of Dhaka that we hope everyone will find refreshing.

• About Jhaal Muri
• What is Jhaal Muri?
• About Phartists [Photographers & Artists]!

First batch of 20 images from yesterday's photowalk : click the thumbnails for a larger version.

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk, Dhaka Bangladesh, 23rd August 2008 led by David Mckee. A great morning, met a lot of new people and many very good photographers. The Walk was interesting especially to go out to an area of the city that I do not visit often. people on the street were really friendly, though a bit curious as to what a whole bunch of camera-toting people were suddenly doing there! As part of the walk, a friend and I also took a boat trip up and back the Buriganga. It was fascinating to note, that there are pre-defined «lanes» for the small passenger row-boats to cross across from one side to the other bank. It is a busy river, with barges, ferries, sand-boats, and boats of all shapes and sizes...that this system of orderly boat-traffic makes it as safe as possible.

The back-lanes in the Sadarghat and Old Dhaka areas were so full of life! Everyone with a purpose. No one seemed to be «just there» or strolling. The streets were crowded, as expected in a city with one of the highest population densities in the world. Rickshaws, pull-carts, push-carts, a few horse driven buggies, even a few cars in those narrow lanes! I have one photo, in this set showing the scrape-marks of vehicular traffic along the wall of a lane.

All in all, a great morning well spent!