Blackbox


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Black room, 4 sound box, 1 active microphone, 1 inactive microphone, 1 spot light, two chairs. 3 hour,
National Art Exhibition, Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy, June 24, 2015



                                                                                                                                                     Photo: Munem Wasif

Black box is to listen to one’s own hidden voice. It is about being loud about the stories we hid as women and stay with the trauma forever. It’s about releasing pain in a collective process from a country where women groping, girl child abuse and sexual traumas are self-censored.
I left the box empty with an inactive microphone. Blackbox is there for the people to share stories only to themselves, listen to the hidden words for the very first time and feel the freedom from these traumas.

From an unknown space with the active microphone and four speakers I shared my own traumas. While growing up as a South-Asian woman, how did I self-censored myself again and again. I shared stories of how did I feel when public mutilation of women took place during one of the ‘Pohela Boishakh’ or the celebration of Bengali New Years.
I wanted to see the connection of viewers between hiding and hidden. At the same time, it was an experiment of curiosity and tendency of reluctance of not searching within self.