Anatomy: prologue

Mahtab Nafis

2015 - Ongoing

Bangladesh

Time stops. A pause.

Memories come back, a reminder.

The ashes of time echo in the everyday past,

The elapsing continuum.

The growth continues, discovering bit by bit, peeling through what is buried; becoming something beyond comprehension. Perhaps I have lost something or perhaps I have just found it, right after losing it. Being unsure of what just happened, the reality feels surreal. My mind floats in the dark, wandering amid the convoluted collection of paradoxical thoughts, tearing apart.

The seeking gaze,

And the changing phase.

Emotions are strange,

Memories are stranger.

After a period of time it becomes hard to tell what you have felt, feelings become numb. But the way you function, you know for sure that something has changed, somewhere deep inside, to the very molecular level. And when you realize that you have played a part in it, you are transfixed. Then, nothing makes sense anymore. Reaching out to the void, you try to give it to the wind, hoping that you would escape. But, the strange clockwork of memory unkind keep coming back, every-time, splashing ashore; the reminder.

The series “Anatomy:Prologue” is a photographic contemplation centering the incident of my father’s death in a road accident, Feb 15th 2010.

Road accidents have now become a great social concern in Bangladesh. Each year there are at least 3,000 fatalities and 3,000 grievous and simple injuries from around 3,500 police reported accidents. Other sources estimated the fatalities as high as from 12,000 to 20,000 per year.

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  • Self- Bandaged hand. 2015.

  • Nightmare 1. 2016.

  • Self- diptych 1. 2015.

  • Dad- diptych 1. 2015.

  • Mom- diptych 1. 2015.

  • Nightmare- diptych 2. 2015.

  • Mom- diptych 2. 2015.

  • Self- Blood on hand. 2016.

  • Self 1. 2016.

  • Nightmare 2. 2016.

  • Self- diptych 2. 2015.

  • Nightmare- diptych 2. 2015.

  • Dad's old briefcase. 2015.

  • Shattered glass. 2015.

  • The incident on February 15, 2010, I am sitting with my dad, a reproduction of the newspaper photograph. 2016.

  • Mom at the seashore. 2016.

  • Metaphor 1. 2015.

  • Mom- diptych 3. 2015.

  • Dad- diptych 2, I am sitting with my dad. 2015.

  • Dad's empty bed. 2016.

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