BACKGROUND: 100 spoons but I need a knife

Naeem Mohaiemen has received support from Arts Network Asia.

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…:-)…