DESIRE FOR BELONGING, 2025

Trocadero Projects, Melbourne

"Where are you from?" is an everyday question in immigrant lives, yet for this artist, the answer is never simple. In fact, it reveals the fundamental paradox of her artistic practice. She states, "I am simultaneously from Bangladesh, from the land called Char in the River Delta, and from the Western side of Melbourne." However, within Bangladesh, she was an internal climate migrant due to the catastrophic river erosion, as her ancestors and parents originated from the river delta, while she grew up in the highlands. Hence, she was an outsider there as well. Despite her identity's many dimensions and intersections, she often lives on the periphery. This body of work unveils the paradoxical concept of the artist's multiplicitous self, where identity and belonging are intertwined with social location, gender, past history and current position within her diasporic context.

These bodily, ephemeral sculptures simultaneously foreground her individual emotional vulnerability and strength. The work portrays the artist's desire to find a connection between her left land and her adopted home.