Events
RISING: Storytelling with Saris
a performance/installation by MONICA JAHAN BOSE
Performance assistant: Sham-e-Ali Nayeem
RISING is part of perform(art)ive, a performance art festival organized and curated by Twelve Gates Gallery
RISING speaks to climate change, using a 216-foot sari, water, and video projections. Images are projected onto saris and the bodies of performers. The movement of the performers and saris suggests storms, waves, and disruption of our ecosystem. The performance uses worn saris and video from STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long term collaboration with 12 coastal women in Bangladesh who may be displaced by climate change. Audience members will be invited to join the performance and create a circle with the sari, which creates a sheer screen.
RISING explores connections between water and displacement, offering the hope of action and change. In South Asian culture, water symbolizes cleansing, death and rebirth.
Photo credit: Tony Hitchcock.
Please join us for a Holiday Party/Open Studio and Performance Salon on Saturday December 12th from 4 to 8 pm. I will show images of recent public performances using the saris (amazing photos by Tony Hitchcock, Mir Elias, and Regina Catipon!) followed by a discussion and sharing of experiences from friends who joined or observed INUNDATION at Dupont Circle or RISING in Philadelphia.
There will be drinks and snacks and everyone is welcome.
I would love to see you before I depart for Bangladesh on December 20th! Things are looking more promising that we will actually be able to get to Katakhali Village this time because I managed to book seats on a sea plane, which lands in water and runs even during strikes and political unrest. Earlier this year, we were unable to reach Katakhali due to transportation blockades and terrorism. It has been a very difficult and sad time around the world including in my beloved Paris, but we must continue to celebrate life and art.
Performance Salon and Holiday Open Studio
Saturday December 12, 2015
4 pm to 8 pm [slides and discussion starting at 5:00 pm]
2017 Belmont Road, NW
Photo credit: Tony Hitchcock.
Monica Jahan Bose is collaborating with the International Centre for Climate and Development and its expert on gender and climate, Sarder Shafiqul Alam, to create a climate knowledge sharing workshop in Katakhali Village, Barobaishdia Island, Patuakhali, Bangladesh. The workshop will be an opportunity to learn from the affected community what their experiences are of climate change, including effects on crops and fish, and what strategies they are using to address the changes. Information will be shared about the reasons for climate change and ways to document the changes to create a record of what is happening in the community.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND BANGLADESH
Cinema Green is screening the performance film JALOBAYU (Climate.Water.Wind.) and an excerpt from HER WORDS: STORYTELLING WITH SARIS along with a world premiere of a brand new film about Bangladesh and climate change called THIRTY MILLION by Daniel Price and Adrien Taylor, which includes an interview of Monica Jahan Bose. There will be Q & A with artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose.
WHAT DO MIAMI & BANGLADESH HAVE IN COMMON? They are amongst the most vulnerable regions in the world to the effects of storm-related flooding and sea-level rise caused by climate change: Bangladesh – millions of people at risk. Miami – billions in assets at risk.
Award-winning artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose, in partnership with ECOMB’s Cinema Green Project and Haven South Beach, will screen three short documentaries on the impact of climate change on Bangladesh and on its low lying communities. The screening is free and will be followed by a talk-back session with Monica Jahan Bose.
HER WORDS: STORYTELLING WITH SARIS by Monica Jahan Bose and New York-based Bangladeshi filmmaker Nandita Ahmed (http://storytellingwithsaris.com/about/)
A short excerpt will be screened from this documentary about a collaborative printmaking and story project highlighting the achievement of literacy by women in the remote island community of Katakhali, Bangladesh, which is artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose’s ancestral village and part of an eco-empowerment program started by Samhati, a US-based non-profit group of Bangladeshi-American women. Katakhali village is located on the island of Barobaishdia in Patuakhali District and is one of the southernmost islands of Bangladesh, an area severely impacted by climate change.
JALOBAYU (Climate. Water. Wind.) by Monica Jahan Bose.
http://storytellingwithsaris.org/
JALOBAYU is a 7 minute film about a performance art installation during Miami Basel 2014. JALOBAYU juxtaposes Bangladeshi coastal women’s words and their worn saris against the backdrop of the rising ocean in Miami Beach. Women from Miami, including members of One Billion Rising – Miami, joined the performance. By physically and emotionally linking coastal communities, JALOBAYU speaks to the global problem of climate change and our need to work together to address it. Videography and photography: Ambika and Peter Samarthya-Howard.
THIRTY MILLION by Daniel Price and Adrien Taylor.
http://thirtymillionfilm.org/
This 35-minute film references the estimated 30 million individuals who may be displaced in Bangladesh due to climate change. Bangladesh is often described as the most vulnerable country on the planet in the face of a changing climate. This film, funded by United Nations Development Fund and the Global Environmental Facility, takes a close look at the human impact of climate change. THIRTY MILLION is being screened on April 1 for the first time worldwide.
Photo: cover image from JALOBABU, 2014 (photo credit: Peter Samarthya-Howard).
“Water” a solo exhibition by Monica Jahan Bose in Richmond, Virginia.
Curated by Naoko Wowsugi. Please email the artist and RSVP to attend the opening and workshop on May 31, 2016.
Bangladeshi-American artist and activist Monica Jahan Bose uses painting, performance, video, photography, printmaking, and community engagement to address climate change. She references mythology, personal histories, and everyday objects and garments to create fragmented, symbolic narratives. She uses the sari and sari blouse to refer to women’s lives. Water is an enduring theme in her work, speaking to life, climate, sustenance, death, and renewal.
Water is the source of life but also causes destruction through increasing cyclones, storm surges, and rising sea levels, all resulting from climate change and our excessive consumption of energy. Bose is the creator of Storytelling with Saris, a longterm collaborative art and advocacy project highlighting the resilience of women in Katakhali, Bangladesh, a remote island community severely impacted by climate change and expected to disappear unless the world takes action now. She is working with 12 women from Katakhali, her ancestral village, and bringing their stories to the world. The project includes printmaking and writing on saris, journal writing, as well as research, education, adaptation training, and advocacy on climate change. Bose is conducting climate pledge workshops around the US, where participants learn about the impacts of climate change and make pledges directly on saris to reduce their carbon footprint. These climate pledge saris are transported to Bangladesh and shared with (and ultimately worn as garments by) the coastal women of Katakhali. Bose will be holding climate pledge workshop on May 31, 2016.
About the artist: Monica Jahan Bose is an artist, lawyer, and activist based in Washington, DC and Bangladesh. She studied art at Wesleyan University and Santiniketan, India, and has a law degree from Columbia University. In addition to more than 20 years working as a visual artist, Bose has founded and run several non-profits and practiced and taught environmental and human rights law. She has exhibited her artwork extensively in the US, Bangladesh, France, Japan, and India. Her paintings were recently selected to represent the US in “1 in 3,” the World Bank’s global exhibition on gender-based violence, which featured 30 international artists. In 2014, she was invited to present Storytelling with Saris at the US EPA, the Brooklyn Museum, the Edward M. Kennedy Center in Bangladesh, and SELECT during Art Basel-Miami Beach. In 2015, she had a solo exhibition at the Bangladesh National Museum. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, supported by the National Endowment on the Arts. Bose serves on the board of Samhati, a US-based Bangladeshi women’s organization that creates eco-empowerment projects for low-income women in Bangladesh. She is also a board-member of the New York-based South Asian Women’s Creative Collective.
Please join us in New York for the premiere of the UN-funded film “Thirty Million” at the UN Secretariat, followed by a panel discussion with film director Daniel Price and artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose. The film is about the impacts of climate change on Bangladesh. Monica appears in the film to speak about some of those impacts. You must RSVP to Carl Mercer to attend at carl.mercer@undp.org
Floating/Drowning, a performance, installation, and art action by Monica Jahan Bose, is a a collective response to climate change. Bose collaborates with women from her ancestral village in Bangladesh as well as residents of Miami to create a transborder physical and emotional link between coastal peoples. One Billion Rising – Miami will be joining and co-sponsoring the performance. We are facing catastrophic changes to our planet from climate change, and our president elect has vowed to back out of the recent Paris Climate Agreement. The performance triggers individual and community action on climate change, regardless of federal support. Saris with writing from Bangladesh and Miami are used to establish a people to people agreement on climate, which will move from the fair to the streets to the rising sea and the bay.
This is a two-part project at two different locations:
Satellite Art Show, 1510 Collins Ave, 2nd Fl, Miami Beach, FL, Fri., Dec. 2, 2016, 1-3 PM.
Superfine – The Fairest Fair 56 NE 29th St., back garden, Miami, FL, Dec. 3, 2016, 4- 6 PM
The performance is part of Storytelling with Saris, a collaborative art and advocacy project highlighting gender and climate change.
Performance participants include: Farhana Akhter, Marya Meyer, Kathryn Villano, Nitin Mukul, Leah Stoddard, and more to come.
Vocals: Juanita-marie Franklin
Image credit: Ei Jane.
Floating/Drowning, a performance, installation, and art action by Monica Jahan Bose, is a a collective response to climate change. Bose collaborates with women from her ancestral village in Bangladesh as well as residents of Miami to create a transborder physical and emotional link between coastal peoples. One Billion Rising – Miami will be joining and co-sponsoring the performance. We are facing catastrophic changes to our planet from climate change, and our president elect has vowed to back out of the recent Paris Climate Agreement. The performance triggers individual and community action on climate change, regardless of federal support. Saris with writing from Bangladesh and Miami are used to establish a people to people agreement on climate, which will move from the fair to the streets to the rising sea and the bay.
This is a two-part project at two different locations:
Satellite Art Show, 1510 Collins Ave, 2nd Fl, Miami Beach, FL, Fri., Dec. 2, 2016, 1-3 PM.
Superfine – The Fairest Fair 56 NE 29th St., back garden, Miami, FL, Dec. 3, 2016, 4- 6 PM
The performance is part of Storytelling with Saris, a collaborative art and advocacy project highlighting gender and climate change.
Performance participants include: Farhana Akhter, Marya Meyer, Kathryn Villano, Nitin Mukul, Leah Stoddard, and more to come.
Vocals: Juanita-marie Franklin
Image credit: Ei Jane.
1.5 • C installation at Ward !2 Group Exhibition of S&R Studio Program fellows
Site specific video installation with woodblock printed saris, lightbulbs, and snowglobes
Exhibition dates: December 7-December 17, 2016 (daily from 1-4 pm). Register for viewing after the opening. Click for more details.
One point five degrees is the maximum increase allowable from preindustrial global temperatures to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change. This was adopted as the “aspirational” goal of the Paris Agreement by 195 nations in December 2015. The agreement limits the temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees, but aspires to keep the increase within 1.5 degrees. Island and low-lying countries like Bangladesh vehemently pushed for 1.5 degrees. We have already increased the world’s temperature by almost one degree.
The saris were printed and painted in collaboration with women from my ancestral village on Barobaishdia Island, Bangladesh. These women have recently learned to read and are confronting, learning about, and adapting to climate change. The island may become submerged unless the world takes action. The video is a sample from my future film “Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris,” made in collaboration with Leena Jayaswal and Shefali Akhter Shetu.
The used lightbulbs were collected from DC residents in Ward 1 and 2, including S&R artists and staff and Halcyon fellows and staff, who I encouraged to switch to LED lights to reduce their carbon footprint. The snowglobes are part of a 30-year old family collection, visually representing the world drowning from climate change.
Ward 12
Ward 12 is the culmination of the creative work by 12 DC artists awarded studio space in the historic Fillmore School in Georgetown, built in 1893. These artists were selected for the powerful message of their artistic work, and their potential to make future contributions to the artistic and cultural fabric of Washington, DC. Dedicated studio space was provided at the Fillmore School in order for each artist to pursue their creative work freely, in any manner that they choose.
Their individual work utilizes a broad range of artistic media: painting, sculpture and installation, performance, literature, film making, fashion, and dance. They are all united by their expressions of social consciousness and awareness of some of the most intractable collective issues of our present moment; from the harmful effects of climate change on communities, the crisis in Syria, to the future of our urban environments. This exhibition celebrates their depth of vision, critical thinking, and insight into complex issues that surround us.
The exhibition will present works, screenings, and performances by:
Konshens the MC | Mattias Kraemer | Daniel Pheonix Singh | Eames Armstrong | Grethe Wittrock | Monica Jahan Bose | Anna Kaminski | Erik Moe | Ayana Zaire Cotton | Marion Colomer | Anna Tsouhlarakis | Reilly Dowd
