Installation art name: Words from a spectrum based on LGBTQ community of Bangladesh

Course Code: MSJ11214

The Social Norms Theory

This semester’s theme for the curriculum integration was “the social norms theory.” This theory posits that our habits, behavior, and reactions are influenced mainly by how our peers think and act in front of us. For example, it is hard to adapt to changes and situations when it comes to making any change in our lives. Just like that, when it comes to changing our mindset about a particular scenario, it gets difficult to think, exceeding the boundaries of our minds. It gets difficult to think outside what our family or society has taught us while growing up.

Group Theme

While discussing different ideas for the installation art, we knew we wanted to do something that would be impactful and raise awareness. One of our group members, Sabiha Archi, suggested doing something with the LGBTQ Community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, and queer people). I already had a few friends from the LGBTQ community, so I knew how difficult it is for them to survive in a society like ours in Bangladesh. That’s why we all knew this would be a great idea because no one talks about this topic in our community.

In Bangladesh, according to act 377, “Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with 2[ imprisonment] for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine”. In a society where something so personal as loving someone of the same gender is criminalized and is compared with animals, no wonder how hard it might be for the LGBTQ community people to survive here.

To get their true feelings and struggles, we decided there was no better way than to get actual letters from the people of its community. That is when we decided that we wanted to exhibit actual letters from the LGBTQ community people where they would share their untold stories with society and tell us their true feelings.

Figure 9: Photo from Shilpakala exhibiton 1

Layout/Plan

For the layout, we wanted a spectrum full of letters from the LGBTQ community to be more interactive and personal. And as the LGBTQ flag consists of the color scheme of a rainbow, that’s why I planned that all the letters would be arranged in the color scheme of the rainbow. So that most people can relate that it is something about that community.

From the very beginning, we wanted something simple but with a solid message to society that will also be interactive. That’s why as soon as we finalized our central idea, we started to reach out to LGBTQ community people for the letters. And luckily, we were able to collect more than 110 letters from people in the community from all over the country. And this was probably the most challenging part of the entire installation art because we had to personally reach many people, explain to them about our project, and then collect the letters through google forms, Facebook groups, personal messages, and e-mails.

Production

Now comes the part of making the actual art piece. At first, we needed envelopes of 7 colors, just like we planned on the layout. We found only 4 colors of envelopes in the store, which means we had to make the rest 3 colors by hand, which is around a total of 60 envelopes that we made by hand.

For the stand to hang the letters on was another big challenge. We could not find a proper stand that would be well balanced for the 3 days of the exhibition and something that is budget-friendly. Later on, we decided to buy PVC pipes as the stand and colored it white with spray paint. And to ensure it’s well balanced, we used actual square-shaped flower vases with clay on the bottom of the PVC pipe. At my place, on my rooftop, we did the first trial of our artwork so that we had an idea of what it would look like in the end. And we were pretty satisfied with the end result.

Figure 11: Preparation of installation art 1

Figure 12: Preparation of installation art 2

On September 6th, it was time to set up the installation art in Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, gallery 2. We finished most of our work before the installation day, so we did not have to rush at the last minute. Most of our time went with tying up the ropes for the letters to hang on and gluing them onto the pipe so that it stayed intact. In total, it took about 4-5 hours to reconstruct the entire thing. Plus, we ensured that the lighting was proper so that all the colors looked vibrant and the entire artwork looked attractive.

Figure 13: Final Installation art

Exhibition

Our main exhibition was on the 7th of September. We exhibited our work in the very front left corner of the gallery, which was exactly what we wanted. There were visitors from different backgrounds to our exhibitions. Students, teachers, and even from other universities came to visit our work. We were lucky enough to invite a few LGBTQ activists, and many of them came in and gave us overwhelming responses.

Figure 14: Pictures from the exhibition

Feedback

While making this installation art, we did not expect such excellent responses from all the visitors. When we asked an LGBTQ activist from Rangpur about he felt after seeing this artwork, he mentioned,” It is an excellent initiative from people who do not belong to this community yet tried to give out a message which many people often ignore in our society. I cannot explain how overwhelmed, and happy I am seeing this. Thank you for this great initiative”.

Jabir Misbah, a student of ULAB, said, “often LGBTQ community people cannot share their words, and this gave them a way to tell their words to the people.”

We also asked one of our faculties, Wafi Aziz Sattar that what kind of impact this installation art might have on society, he mentioned “this was a great platform since the people of this community could express their words comfortably, considering their names were not revealed as often it becomes risky for them due to societal pressure. I believe this may even change other people’s perspectives”.

We asked one of our visitors named Zuri how this would impact herself after reading a few letters, “This is just extremely heavy. So many parts of so many people’s lives that they must keep hidden all the time. Moreover, they had to come out through a platform where they had to make themselves anonymous. It is kind of sad, and I cannot stay here for long because of so many emotions coming towards me from every color. I am just overwhelmed. However, it is beautiful that they at least got to share their stories, even if they do not get the name for their identity”, she mentioned.

Shahriar, another student of ULAB, mentioned, “I think it is a very nice installation art, especially on an issue like social norms, and this stands out a lot because of how you perceived it. It looks simplistic and minimalistic, yet it carries so much meaning.”

Realization

After doing this installation art, the feedback we got was more than expected. So many positive responses and support from students, faculties even our visitors. Besides our artwork, we gave a small write-up about our project to the people who did not know about the LGBTQ community beforehand so that it was easier for the mass audience to interpret the message. Although most of the people read at least one letter, a few people spent hours reading the letters even till the very end when we were packing up everything on the last day. A visitor took pictures of all 110 letters so she could read them later. Besides, sadly we found 2-3 young boys who found the letters funny. To them, it was ridiculous to even talk about the LGBTQ community people because they thought it was just a mental disorder. However, this was the only negative feedback we got.

If I get the chance to do this installation art once again, I would love to do this on a much bigger scale with 400-500 letters. As we had to maintain a strict budget and minimal time, we did it with 110 letters, but still, all of our group members were really satisfied with the work. Although our work was very simple, our strength was that this project carried a strong message for society.

Throughout this journey of making this art, collecting and reading hundreds of letters, this further changed my mindset towards these people and inspired me to work further for their community in the near future. I was lucky enough to get immense support from all of my group members, faculties, and even my parents. If this project can bring the slightest change in the mindset of people towards LGBTQ people, then this project was a success.