Jamini
Farhad Ahmed
The latest issue of Jamini (March 2007), the international art journal published by ICE Media Limited of the Bengal Group, has a striking cover: A head smoking a cigar, black terracotta, by Alok Roy, titled Playing with Innocent Bird. The material inside is equally striking - the journal continues to effortlessly keep up the standards it set with its first issue - with pieces ranging from an engrossing interview conducted by Kaiser Haq with sculptor Hamiduzzaman Khan to Mahboob Alam's informative 'company drawings: Bengal chapter' to Gina Fairley's fascinating account of Australian artist Tony Twigg, whose installation art was inspired by "barong barong, spontaneous Filipino shanty architecture...made from the seemingly random collections of found wood and metal sheeting, these anonymous shelters have an intuitive, raw aesthetic that appealed to Twigg." Also welcome was the coverage afforded in this issue of Jamini to Dhaka's own Chobi Mela IV - the articles written by Fariha Karim ('beyonard boundaries') and Hana Shams Ahmed and Nader Rahman ('celebrating photography') emphasize the ideological bases that underlie the photographic North-South divide.The production qualities of this art magazine published from Dhaka is an object lesson to all those who otherwise despair of producing quality journals from here. Congratulations are in order to the editors for continuing to consistently publish this standard-setting quarterly.. Farhad Ahmed is a freelance translator/reviewer.
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