An artist’s never-ending quest for self
Searching for self is always difficult. That is very much true for an artist, and that is where the paintbrush starts crumbling. Little is the solace upon those who disconnect themselves from this world, chose self-isolation until their brush stops crumbling and they find themselves to begin anew.
Young artist Suborna Morsheada, too, found her canvas anew during a quest to search for self in isolation and the result of her urge to explore the self was a number of artworks “Onneshon”.
A Fine Arts graduate of Dhaka University, Suborna Morsheada has always been drawn to printmaking because it can provide a language of marks, a richness of colour, depth and other unique characteristics that cannot be achieved in any other way.
Her practice spreads across a whole range of media, including etching, lithograph, wood engraving and anything within the gamut of applied and fine art.
Forty-three pieces of artwork that Suborna Morsheada created during self-isolation were displayed at a 15-day exhibition titled “Onneshon” at Dhaka’s EMK Centre from 15-30 January. Rezaur Rahman was the curator of the exhibition.
As the artist puts it, “My intense urge to explore myself instigated this work during a self-isolation. An isolation that was not imposed by the pandemic, but a conscious act when I thought I was drowning into the darkness. Searching for self was always difficult. But I found it an effective healing process.”
Suborna Morsheada explained her journey during the self-isolation saying she went back to the nature. “I went to my mom’s garden that had her touch on every leaf. I played with flowers and branches, bathed them with blue poison to release the pain in me.”
“I poured in melancholy while doing lithos or sketches, and during some very rare moments succeeded to dance with water colours. I scrambled, doodled as if I am recording my shivering self like a seismograph,” she added.
“The narrative in the exhibition ‘Onneshon’ is merely a personal diary. This is a story of a phoenix that burned itself and rose from its ashes,” the artist said.
When asked about her return from isolation, Suborna Morsheada said she found a new whole world where everybody had been waiting to welcome her. “Such is the appreciation that people including my teachers and mentors told me that my artworks get more matured,” she told Prothom Alo.
The elements in her artwork are reminiscent of the lines and patterns, and colours from her childhood. Suborna Morsheada believes that love along with lust and sexuality, can passionately capture the complexities of human lives, its emotions into the art form.
She has been an artist since she was a student and participated in artist residency programmes home and abroad. Some of her solo exhibitions are “Love, Light and Other emotions” in Dhaka, "ELATION" in Goa, India and "Nothing is real, Real is nothing", in Nepal, among others. Her works were also exhibited at Asian Art Biennale, National Art Exhibition.
A banker by profession, Suborna Morsheada also won various awards including Kibria Young Printmaker Best Award in 2016. She also curated artworks in exhibitions organised by different embassies and done many book cover illustrations throughout her career.
As her quest to search for self is still on, Suborna Morsheada plans to be an “full time artist” in the future.
“It is very difficult to be a full time artist anywhere, especially in a country like Bangladesh. I do have another job to live by though I am not inclined to it. I want to be full time visual artist in future. For me, the search for self is a never-ending process,” she said.