MY (M)OTHERLAND, 2025

Melbourne City Library, Melbourne

This project is a captivating visual storytelling of the artist's Bangladeshi-Australian bi-cultural identity. It also explores the peculiarity of cross-cultural pollination by incorporating her native tradition, materials, folklore and diasporic context in an innovative and thought-provoking way.

As a first-generation female immigrant, the artist often finds herself navigating a cultural in-between space that is constantly evolving. Born and raised in Bangladesh and having lived in Australia for nearly two decades, she frequently feels that both countries are foreign to her. This liminal space is beautifully captured in her paintings, presented as banners—a common form of activism and expression worldwide. The banners, symbolising movement and travel reflect the artist's experience of uprootedness and displacement, a shared experience in today's age of mass migration and refugee crises.

Yet, the project also highlights the artist's personal journey of hybridisation and unique individuality. It visually explores her ongoing formation of a cross-cultural identity, which is neither entirely surreal nor real. The banners incorporate her native hand-stitching techniques from traditional household items called Kantha, the folklores she grew up with, and the sharp, bright colour fields from contemporary Western aesthetics. This composition may seem like an unusual combination, yet it represents the artist's inhabited cultural in-between, navigating the past and present with a sense of anxiety.

My (M)otherland is not just an exploration of the artist's cross-cultural identity through diverse material practices but also an emotional crisis shared by many immigrants. The project captures a sense of ambivalence and the unreal hybrid in-between land, a feeling that many in the audience may resonate with.