One With Nature

Kamruzzaman Shadhin’s work is rooted in site specific performance practice. His Collaborative performance with Molani Santal Dance Group took place in his home village Balia in Thakurgaon, Bangladesh (most people who live in Dhaka have a home village where they are from, where their extended family still live). Within this performance the public were invited to participate by preparing Shadhin for his performance. Villagers applied Balia soil to Shadhin’s face.

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In the piece, the Molange Santal Dance Group perform on the bank of the village Dighi (village ponds – Dighis have multiple uses, drinking water, bathing, washing of clothes/pans, providing fresh fish for consumption).

Shadhin is dressed only in a lungi (a woven cotton sarong, the most commonly worn piece of mens clothing in Bangladesh) bangs symbals and encants ‘to each their own religion, one with nature’ as he moves across the water on a vessel hand made with local materials.

 

This work can be seen to represent the complex issues surrounding ethnic and religious divisions in Bangladesh. However it is a wishful piece, the performance symbolises the artist’s hopes for people, land and nature in Thakurgaon.