A gray, seemingly metallic sheet is hung on the wall, folded over itself, curiously luring the viewer in to wonder what lies inside or underneath it. This is the work of Ayesha Sultana (b. 1984, Jessore /Dhaka), which often resembles metal sheets that could be mass-produced, but they also carry a certain lightness and singularity. Sultana’s works are sometimes hung on walls, sometimes placed on structures such as tables and stools. Upon closer observation, it becomes clear that the work is actually made of paper; it only looks like metal because the artist had laboriously rubbed the entire sheet with many layers of graphite. These works on paper often look like they are folded, too, further challenging our perception of these works that seem to be sturdy and vulnerable, machine-made and handcrafted at the same time.
Sultana’s practice can be seen as an inquiry into spatial relationships, visual perceptions and slippages that occur when materiality is being pushed to its limits. Her native city of Dhaka and its makeshift architecture often serve as a point of reference. The many different kinds of metal sheets which form a key part of the many shanty towns in Dhaka perhaps find themselves transformed into the various shades of shimmering gray in Sultana’s works. Sultana’s work also directly intervenes in the city’s architecture itself. For example, in Rupture (2015), Sultana integrated gold leaf into the cracks of a building in Old Dhaka, allowing the precious material to bring out and highlight the imperfections and decay of the city’s architecture. In A Space Between Things (2015–16), Sultana’s inclusion of materials from a metallic ladder-like structure to glass fragments that filled a certain section of the floor, to a piece of folded linen hung on the wall, transformed her abstraction into compositions of objects and materiality that inhabit an environment. MW
self-presentation:
Ayesha Sultana, born in 1984 in Jessore, Bangladesh, received her BFA (2007) and post-graduate diploma (2008) from Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan, where she also taught for two years.
Sultana’s work explores the transient nature of space and its relationship to the tangible by questioning the subjective, arousing the ethereal, from the immateriality of material. She works across multiple mediums, including sound installation, drawing, photography, and painting.
Sultana’s notable exhibitions include A Space Between Things, Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka (2016); Immateriality in Residue, Experimenter, Kolkata (2015); Blue Velvet, Galleria Valentina Bonomo, Rome (2014); and Outside the Field of View, Experimenter, Kolkata (2014). She is a member of the artist-run organisation Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh. She was the recipient of the Samdani Art Award in 2014, and was artist-in-residence at the Delfina Foundation, London (2014) and IASPIS, Stockholm (2016).
