Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan

Majoritarian rhetoric is currently the mainstay of South Asian politics. The Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act granting citizenship to those fleeing from neighboring regions passed on December 11, 2019, and has propelled mass protests due to its exclusion of Muslims and over fears of the increase in refugees. Parallels have been drawn to the creation of Pakistan in 1947 in the name of religion—which, as the painful birth of Bangladesh in 1971 demonstrated, proved inefficient in holding together the diverse population. Overnight, people were separated and new identities were born.

Against this background—and in response to intensifying religious nationalism in South Asia—“Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan” at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, showcasing the works of eleven artists, dissected the contemporary relevance of the concept of home, and the narratives built around being from, or of, a place.

This notion of heavy surveillance and political hostility is intensified in Munem Wasif’s Spring Song (2019). Taken in the refugee camps of Teknaf, Bangladesh, the photographs show an inventory of items owned by the Rohinge refugees: a rudimentary tannoy speaker, a can of skin lotion, and a bundle of dried fish. Documented like museological objects and positioned on block colored backgrounds, the sterile images recall possessions that have been extracted from their owners, akin to objects displayed in some museum collections. Their provenance bespeaks a history of trauma.

Uprooted people share this anguish. Desmond Lazaro’s commission, Chile, 1973, Hungary, 1957, U.S.A, Texas, 2017 and Bangladesh (all 2019) chronicle the experiences of immigrants residing in Cambridge from these respective countries. His interviews with these individuals were transformed into four exquisite miniatures portraying the isolated fragments of their memories. Each canvas, with a background of a floral motif, pallid pink, scarlet red, and thick gold pigment respectively, highlights a piece of memorabilia such as a sepia passport photo and a lone figure carrying a suitcase. These images carry the weight of Lazaro’s observations and the experiences common to his interviewees, that of emotions of upheaval, relocation, adjustment, reconciliation, and forgiveness.