BACKGROUND: 100 spoons but I need a knife

As the promised December ‘08 “return to democracy” elections approach, Bangladesh’s grand experiment is in dark waters. August 2008 was the 1st anniversary of the anti-army riots that exploded on university campuses last year– a tectonic disturbance that was the first sign of derailed blueprints. Invited to show at Gallery Chitrak, I imagined a shadow commemoration of that August. The week before Ramadan is dead time anyway, no booked shows. “A show about mobile phone photos,” I freestyled to the gallery staff. “It can be our charity show,” he replied.

1. BLUE ROOM

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2. OUR SPONSOR

That Felt Good, 4:45 pm

3. SPORTS ROOM

It all started with a very trivial matter

4. GREEN ROOM

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5. SHOPPING ROOM

SOUNDTRACK: for Aroggo Blowout (listen while browsing aisles)

Excuse me Mister, Agora's lawyers are on line 1

6. RED ROOM

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7. NO CAKE

If you can't find cake eat GPA 5.0

8. EXIT ROOM

Palabe Kothae

9. INTERSTITIALS

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NOTES

BLUE ROOM
Bones of Xindian: Usually pronounced as Zeendeean but also by wags as Ex-Indian. Dorky restaurant on Dhanmondi Road 27, smashed by rioters on Day 3. Later these ‘civillian’ targets were used to argue that riots had degenerated from anti-government to score-settling.

No Signal: All mobile phone networks were shut off from 4-6, the 2 hours that curfew was lifted. You could shop, but you couldn’t call fellow rioters.

I Didn’t Want To Sit: I thought of inserting Otobi (largest corporate furniture company in Dhaka) in thetitle, but since I already had 2 restaurants and superstore Agora, one more would just run over the lawsuit line.

DEBATES: Unpacking Drafts

Shielding (from state censors) and revealing (to audience), I went through multiple iterations of the show statement+invite card. In early drafts, there was chatter about modes of production: poor quality printing anti-aesthetic; PVC banners from shops that make flexi-load banners for phone companies; etc.

Then I shared with Annu Bonbibi, and we argued while I morphed the text:

Naeem: Ok, no more “all you need is love” in the invite. Decided to go with FnF in the end because wanted to bring it back to mobiles…:-)

Annu: there’s a military govt on, you take pictures of curfew, Chitrak gives you space, and you decide to be cute…:-)…