Rasha: Sculpture born out of literature, imitation and passion
Meet expatriate sculptor Akhtar Ahmed Rasha (61), a literature grad who took fancy to sculpting at 45 – rather late, one must say – and perfected his own style of the art form
Can one see words in art or art in words? Words are colour to the writer, they paint with words as painters do with colours, and sculptors do with the chisel. But what happens when the world of words and the world of arts collide? It creates an artiste who portrays literature with art.
Meet expatriate sculptor Akhtar Ahmed Rasha (61), a literature grad who took fancy to sculpting at 45 – rather late, one must say – and perfected his own style of the art form. In 1986, he graduated from Jahangirnagar University in English Literature. In 1992, he settled in New York city, USA.
Art was never his thing until once, in 2001, he visited celebrated sculptor Ferdousi Priyabhashini's exhibition in Bengal Gallery and fell deeply in love with the art form. He went back to the US and braved sculpting as a newfound calling in his life.
Years later, Rasha held his first solo sculpture exhibition in Bangladesh at Safiuddin Shilpalay, in Dhanmondi, a gallery dedicated to the memory of the great Safiuddin Ahmed, considered one of the pioneers of modern art in our region. The exhibition titled 'Drifting to the Root, Drifting to Love' began on 7 September and ends today.
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"Pribhashini's sculptures left a deep mark in my heart. Her humility reflects in her work. I went back to the US after that, but carried her art in my heart. I was as inspired as I could be and tried to make sculptures myself," said Rasha.
Deeply inspired by Priyabhashini's extraordinary presentation of the mundane objects, Rasha began to experiment. Rasha's material of choice is simple, yet it has a warm touch to it. "All my sculptures are made of driftwood. I collect logs and tree branches aimlessly drifting off and try to give them form," he explained.
The beauty of many of his sculptures come from how he assigns meaning to pieces of burlesque driftwoods, which would otherwise look utterly meaningless. For example, the exhibit 'Face to Face' is just a piece of wood which looks like two people facing each other. Another exhibit, 'Krishnakali' looks uncannily similar to the spirit 'No-Face' from Ghibli Studio's 'Spirited Away', a well known spirit in Japanese culture.
Many of the sculptures have faces as well. Not sculpted, the faces are made of sawdust and glue or cement and then given shape to. Sculptures of many influential cultural figures like Rabindranath Thakur, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Begum Rokeya, Allen Ginsberg, Victoria Ocampo, Bob Dylan, Joaz Baez, Eric Clapton, Pandit Ravi Shankar, George Harrison are there, just to name a few.
But how does someone with no experience in sculpting whatsoever become a loved sculptor in many parts of the world? Even if not true to life, one can guess correctly what they are looking at in just one glance. How does he do it?
"I know there are a lot of measurements involved in sculpting, but I mould the faces purely out of my imagination or by looking at their photos. Somehow, they just work. Have you seen Rabindranath's sculptures? His structure is so well known by now that little similarities can help identify him. I tried to bring that here. I have too many Rabindranath's sculptures to count," he answered.
After trying to emulate Priyabhashini, one of his neighbours saw one of his sculptures and took it away. Initially, he was disheartened by that. Around 10 days later, he found a $160 check inside his New York home mailbox for that sculpture.
"My artwork has value!" he exclaimed. He began sculpting seriously from 2009. In 2015, one of his friends booked an art gallery in New York for him. Titled 'Anubhutir Muhurta', in his first solo exhibition, he exhibited 66 sculptures there. In just two days, 33 sculptures were sold!
He was more inspired than ever. In 2017, he hosted his second solo exhibition entitled 'Emon Din E Taare Bola Jay' in New York. More group and solo exhibitions followed thereafter. New Jersey, Maryland and some other places in the US saw his exhibitions.
"My two sons, my loving wife and my friends have always remained supportive. Without their support, I don't know if I could come this far," the sculptor said.
A corner in the exhibition shows Leon Russell, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, etc, the people behind the now legendary 'Concert for Bangladesh' in Madison Square in 1971. Allen Ginsberg's sculpture is an ode to his undying support for the Bangladesh struggle during the Liberation War. A poster of Ginsberg's poem 'September on Jessore Road' hangs behind arguably his most beautiful artwork, the 'Jessore Road'.
The Liberation war had a deep impact on Rasha and his extensive number of sculptures on the subject is proof of that.
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Jessore Road | Driftwood and sawdust
This was inspired by Allen Ginsberg's poem 'September on Jessore Road', which talks about the painful exodus of Bangali people to Kolkata.
Interdependence | Driftwood and sawdust
In the 18th century Damascus city, there were two friends, Sameer and Mohammad, one blind and the other one lame. All they have is each other, despite religious differences. One of them suddenly died and seven days later, the other died as well, heart broken. This driftwood reminds me of Mohammad and Sameer.
Concert for Bangladesh | Driftwood and sawdust
The American people supported Bangladesh's Liberation war. They realised how bad the war was for us. So, all these American musicians, Pandit Ravi Shankar as well, held the Concert For Bangladesh in 1971 in Madison Square where 40,000 audiences gathered. $2,50,000 was raised from the concert alone and was given to support Bangladesh's war effort. They did not take any payment for it.
