Tayeba Begum lipi from Bangladesh portrays trauma, pain and solitude that the transgender community has to live with through her artworks that are created with gold plated safety pins. She talks to Divya Kaushik
What looks like a clutter of intertwined golden metal wires from distance is actually a ladies handbag and shoe made from fabricated safety pins joint together. They might look like some stuff fit for a doll’s house but in reality the shoe and handbag are installations conveying messages on social biases and identity issues. Tayeba Begum lipi from Bangladesh will present Reversal Reality at Shrine Empire. The show will document Tayeba’s meeting with Anonya, a member of the transgender community and her exposure to the odds of society.
The artist draws a parallel between her own life and Anonya’s. Tayeba has tried to trace Anonya’s life through the show, starting from a happy childhood to her growing up isolated years because of her physical condition, using the latter’s old childhood photographs. Anonya’s love for shoes, bags and cosmetics, like any other woman, is reflected in the shoe and bag created using gold plated safety pins. The show uses items from Anonya’s personal collection or preferences to show the pain of her life and the delight she finds in small things. The show will include two seven-minute videos as well as two cascades made with razor blades.
“The project focusses on the opposite conditions of two personalities who had completely different lifestyles in their childhood. Anonya Banik grew up as a boy in her childhood but went through various experiences as she was abused by men several times. On the contrary, I had a safe and protected childhood. My childhood memories played in my mind while I listened to Anonya’s stories. Her experiences were beyond my imagination. As a human being I was ashamed of my comfortable, peaceful life.
Society treats transgender very differently, as if they are from another world. I wanted to portray that difference in my works,” says Tayeba, who met Anonya last year through a friend and made a video that presents Anonya’s brief interview and the artist’s comments. “My first meeting with a transgender was at an event in Dhaka wherein she spoke about her childhood, shared her pain when she had to leave her family to stay with the Hijra community. Her story moved me so much that I did a video installation on the same while I had an opportunity to work for a group exhibition Cross Casting,” adds the artist. She says that her artworks are like a personal narrative conveying the pain, sadness and solitude of the transgender community.
Tayeba was born and brought up in Bangladesh. She studied at the Institute of Fine Art at the University of Dhaka and is the co-founder of the Britto’s Art Trust. “Since my father was a railway officer, my younger brother and I got an advantage to travel with my mother to different towns across the country. My childhood was full of adventure and excitement, meeting new friends in new schools. Finally I came back to my home town Gaibandha in 1981 and stayed until 1985. My elder siblings were my parents, too. Gaibandha had many cultural activities all year long and my family mostly participated. Therefore I grew up with a happy cultural community around me. My upbringing in that atmosphere contributed to my passion and interest in arts,” shares the artist.
If one has to draw any message from her works, it is that “every human being has equal rights on this earth and no one should be treated like an alien or an outsider.”