Lamentation in Two Lies: Firoz Mahmud

Ota Fine Arts is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Firoz Mahmud, the artist who participated in Aichi Triennale last year.

The exhibition is featuring Layapa paintings series which he calls "Layapa Art" and sculptures. The paintings are on war and conflict, love and emotion and the sculpture/installation of 'Fat boys' are of fighter aircrafts which is linked work in small version from "Sucker wfp21" exhibited at 1st Aichi Triennale 2010.

These paintings are based on long time battle between Nawab of Bengals and British East Indian Company during Mughal Empire during 17th Century. The paintings are with in diptych style appearing as they are confronting each other. Some diptych paintings are confronting each other to fight against, some confronting to show love and emotion, the other paintings appear as challenger as warrior and few paintings depicts the interplay of militarism and prejudice related to the state of war.

The exhibition title "Lamentation in Two Lies", "Lamentation" is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow as war and conflict makes people unhappy. Here images of paintings are showing lamentation through their each characters or objects as they are being focused on war documents and intending to prepare for war. In addition to, the story of the battle of Plassey (or Palashi) is widely considered the turning point in the history of India, and opened the way to eventual British domination.

The "Fat boys" (aircraft) considers the interplay of militarism and prejudice related to the state of civil defense that most of the governments are in. Each government spends money for their military, defense, weapons, military aircraft sucking money from public tax and revenue. This militarism is ripe with pride and always prepares for an eventual war. The maquettes of aircraft are covered with Desi beans entirely based on the concern that many people share: survival their life with war and militarism.