Halcyon Tarp

Overview

As part of Sharjah Biennial 9 Firoz Mahmud exhibited Halcyon Tarp, a mixed media work on a grand scale that featured a traditional Bangladeshi pavilion installed in the Sharjah Art Museum. Two leaping Royal Bengal tigers form an entry arch to the pavilion and appear throughout the installation in various media – photographs, paintings and video.

The entire hut, the tigers, as well as a series of large-scale paintings, are all rendered with what Mahmud describes as the ‘layapa’ technique. Layapa is a Bengali word that means ‘anoint’ or ‘plaster’ and refers to a method of applying paint akin to the women of southern rural Bangladesh, who anoint or plaster their own clay huts.

The tiger, an icon of Bangladesh, appears repeatedly throughout Mahmud’s installation and becomes a motif through which the Artist reveals and explores aspects of Bangladeshi history, society and politics. The inclusion of an animal cage at the back of the pavilion and photographs depicting the more aggressive nature of these animals present a counter-image to the tiger as symbol of nobility. In Mahmud’s work the tiger displays a number of conflicting characteristics and therefore becomes an allegory of the complex issues present in Bangladeshi society.


This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 9