Tayeba Begum Lipi | This is What I Look(ed) Like

TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI THIS IS WHAT I LOOK(ED) LIKE

TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI THIS IS WHAT I LOOK(ED) LIKE SUNDARAM TAGORE CHELSEA MAY 2 – JUNE 1, 2019

GALLERY MISSION Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. With spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York City (in Chelsea and on Madison Avenue), the gallery was the first to focus exclusively on the rise of globalization in contemporary art. The gallery represents painters, sculptors and photographers from around the world. They each work in different mediums and use diverse techniques, but share a passion for cross-cultural dialogue. The gallery is renowned for its support of cultural activities—including poetry readings, book launches, music performances and film screenings—that further its mission of East-West exchange.

THIS IS WHAT I LOOK(ED) LIKE Sundaram Tagore New York presents sculpture, photography objects, including irons, bathtubs, strollers, handbags, and and video installations that explore issues of female identity sewing machines, all made from safety pins or stainless steel in contemporary life by acclaimed Bangladeshi artist Tayeba razor blades. Her provocative choice of material speaks Begum Lipi.

to the violence facing women in Bangladesh and to her experiences growing up as the eleventh of twelve children,

Although Lipi’s practice has always been rooted in themes where she was often present for the home births of nieces of female marginality and the female body, the work in this and nephews delivered with the help of a local village woman show offers more of an autobiographical perspective, as and the most readily available tool: a razor blade. the artist considers transitions in her own life as a source of inspiration. “The series of work I’m doing these days are For this exhibition, Lipi is showing recent razor blade related to the memory line,” she says. “I am completing one sculptures, including a selection of women’s wardrobe chapter of my life and moving to a new chapter and aging is accessories, ranging from shoes to undergarments. With this one part of that.”

body of work Lipi explores the commodification of art, but here she takes the idea further by addressing the paradox

Based in Dhaka, Lipi’s multidisciplinary practice includes of subversive art created by women that speaks directly to painting, prints, videos and installations, but she is perhaps issues of female identity, yet is ultimately absorbed into the best known for her sculptural works that re-create everyday patriarchal structure of the art world.

Left: Flattened Skirt (detail), 2019, stainless steel, 14 x 15 x 4 inches/35.6 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm 7

These works are wryly presented in a “boutique” setting, where she is posing in a similar manner. Viewed side-by-side, complete with hangers, garment rack and display stands, these images express the pain of growing older—a universal transforming the gallery space into a literal shop, where the experience, but one that is especially profound for women, as artist invites viewers to browse the work in a conventional the manifestation of fading beauty becomes a reality. retail environment.

Additionally, Lipi will be showing several video installations, Also on view is an installation that was shown at the Shanghai including Unveiling Womanhood, a single-channel video Modern Art Museum last year. Story of A Girl captures the projection in which the artist, wearing a hijab made of stainless brevity of life in ten images. In a series of staged photographs steel razor blades, slowly and methodically removes small of Lipi, taken by French artist Awena Cozzanet in 2003, we white crystals that conceal her face. The video was inspired by see her through the various stages of life, from the carefree a growing trend in Bangladesh of women covering their heads days of youth to the unknowns of marriage and eventually in public, something that is not traditionally part of Bengali death. The images are presented in altar-like wooden frames culture and is perhaps being appropriated as a form of fashion designed by the artist and fabricated by local carpenters.

rather then an expression of religious observance.

Other photographic works include the series that inspired Of her sculpture The Mirror, one of her razor blade works in the title of the show This is What I Look(ed) Like. Set inside which two female figures face each other, Lipi says: “When mounted light boxes are an assortment of self-portraits of I see things through my heart, when I have a conversation the artist from 2004 juxtaposed against current images with another woman or when I listen to someone’s stories, I

8

sometimes find the reflection of my own mind in that mind. We are as different as we live our lives, but we always find some similar issues or stories that are never spoken out ever.�

This sentiment succinctly captures the true nature of Lipi’s art. Since first appearing on the global stage in 2011 as the commissioner for the first Bangladeshi pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, Lipi has often been referred to as a feminist artist who creates politically charged work addressing societal contradictions. But the work in this show beautifully expresses the driving force of her practice, which is to create a space for constructive conversation, to reveal truths and discover common ground.

9

Not For Me 2, 2019, stainless steel, 8 x 9 x 6 inches/20.3 x 22.9 x 15.2 cm

10

11

Not For Me 1, 2019, stainless steel, 7 x 10 x 6 inches/17.8 x 25.4 x 15.2 cm

12

13

The Italian Black Heels, 2019, stainless steel, 6 x 10 x 8 inches/15.2 x 25.4 x 20.3 cm

14

15

My Leather Slippers, 2019, stainless steel, 3.6 x 11 x 6 inches/9.2 x 27.9 x 15.2 cm

16

17

Replicated 1, 2019, stainless steel, 20 x 11 x 8 inches/50.8 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm

18

19

The Rack I Remember, 2019, stainless steel, razor blades and stainless steel

20

21

A Swimsuit for You 2, 2019, stainless steel, top: 10 x 11 x 9 inches, bottom: 11 x 13 x 11 inches/top: 25.4 x 27.9 x 22.9 cm, bottom: 27.9 x 33 x 27.9 cm

22

23

Flattened Skirt, 2019, stainless steel, 14 x 15 x 4 inches/35.6 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm

24

25

A Swimsuit for You 1, 2019, stainless steel, top: 10 x 10 x 9 inches, bottom: 9 x 15 x 10 inches/ top: 25.4 x 25.4 x 22.9 cm, bottom: 22.9 x 38.1 x 25.4 cm

26

27

The Tank Top, 2019, stainless steel, 22 x 12 x 6 inches/55.9 x 30.5 x 15.2 cm

28

29

Never Tried 1, 2019, stainless steel, 20 x 12 x 8 inches/50.8 x 30.5 x 20.3 cm

30

31

The Swing, 2017, stainless steel, 46 x 24 x 24 inches/116.8 x 61 x 61 cm

32

33

Together, 2018, stainless steel, 43 x 57 x 14 inches/109.2 x 144.8 x 35.6 cm

34

35

The Stolen Dream, 2013, stainless steel, 27.5 x 20 x 37 inches/70 x 51 x 94 cm

36

37

Mirror, 2017, stainless steel, 48 x 24 x 16.7 inches/122 x 61 x 50 cm

38

39

The Colombian Boots, 2019, stainless steel, 8 x 11 x 8 inches/20.3 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm

40

41

Once Upon A Time, 2018, stainless steel, 37.4 x 48.4 x 23.2 inches/95 x 122.9 x 58.9 cm

42

43

44

TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI Tayeba Begum Lipi completed a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka in 1993. She was an artist-in-residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, in 2000. In 2003, Lipi was awarded a Grand Prize at the 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh. She was the commissioner for the Pavilion of Bangladesh at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, and was one of the curators for the Kathmandu International Art Festival in 2012.

Lipi has exhibited across the globe at venues such as the Shanghai Modern Art Museum, China; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Michigan; and the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan. She participated in the 14th Jakarta Biennale in 2011; the 2012 Colombo Art Biennale, Sri Lanka; and the 2012 Dhaka Art Summit. In 2015, Lipi’s work featured prominently in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Lipi’s work is in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; LO-FTF Council, Denmark; Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney; Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Segunbagicha; Samdani Art Foundation, Bangladesh; Devi Art Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana; Floodlight Foundation, New Delhi; JSW Foundation and the Harmony Art Foundation/Reliance Group, Mumbai, India.

Lipi is an activist as well as an artist. Together with her husband, artist Mahbubur Rahman, she founded the Britto Arts Trust in 2002, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for other Bangladeshi artists through exhibitions, seminars, residencies and workshops.

Tayeba Begum Lipi lives and works in Dhaka.

45

SUNDARAM TAGORE GALLERIES new york new york hong kong singapore

547 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 • tel 212 677 4520 • gallery@sundaramtagore.com 1100 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 • tel 212 288 2889 4/F, 57-59 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong • tel 852 2581 9678 • hongkong@sundaramtagore.com 5 Lock Road 01-05, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108933 • tel 65 6694 3378 • singapore@sundaramtagore.com

President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso Designer: Russell Whitehead Editor: Kieran Doherty

WWW.SUNDARAMTAGORE.COM Text © 2019 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Photographs © 2019 Sundaram Tagore Gallery All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover: Not For Me 1, 2019, stainless steel, 7 x 10 x 6 inches/17.8 x 25.4 x 15.2 cm