Comfy Bikinis

source: venicebiennale-bangladeshpavilionorg

Born in Gaibandha in 1969, Tayeba Begum Lipi has been living in Dhaka for the past twenty-five years. She studied drawing and painting at the Institute of Fine Art, University of Dhaka until 1993. She is one of the Founder- Trustees of Britto Arts Trust, where she played a major role as coordinator since its inception in 2002 until 2007. Her curations include several international large-scale projects, as well as recently being the commissioner for Parables: Bangladesh Pavilion at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 2011.

Her solo exhibitions include Feminine, Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Dhaka, 2007; Even the Walls have Ears, installation show, Alliance Française de Dacca, Dhaka, 2004; Gallery 21, Dhaka, 2001 and Alliance Française de Dacca, Dhaka in 1998. Lipi has been exhibited in two-person shows such as Parables of our Times, Gallery Akar Prakar, Kolkata, 2010, Artificial Reality, La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dacca, Dhaka, 2002 and Slave of the Civilization, performance at Jyvaskyla, Finland, 2000 with her artist husband, Mahbubur Rahman. She received the Grand Prize award at the 11th Asian Art Biennale and a one-year fellowship from the artist Aminul Islam Trust, Bangladesh in 2004. Some of her selected group shows include 54. la Biennale di Venezia and FemLink-Video Collage, worldwide screenings in 2011; Between Kismet and Karma: South Asian women artists respond to conflict, Leeds Art Gallery, UK, and Videozoom: Bangladesh, Sala 1, Rome, Italy, 2010; 13th-16th,18th, 19th National Art Exhibition, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka; Separating Myth from Reality, an international exhibition by Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, New Media Festival 2009 and1mile² Dhaka, Old Dhaka by Britto Arts Trust in 2009; Bangladesh Contemporary Art Week, Turkish Cultural Center, New York , 13th Asian Art Biennale, organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka, In collaboration with Mithila Art, Christiania Gallery, Copenhagen, Bangladesh Contemporary Art Show, European Union House, Brussels, Ejaz Gallery, Lahore and Faces of feminine expressions from Bangladesh, Gallery Akar Prakar, Kolkata, 2008; In Collaboration with Mithila Art, Gallery Kaya, Dhaka and Collage-Kalpa, Bengal Gallery, Dhaka, 2007; 9th-14th Asian Art Biennale, Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka, 2006, South Asian Contemporary Art Exhibition, Copenhagen, 2006; Collaboration with Mithila Art, Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, 2006, Gasworks Studio, London, 2005; Contemporary Artists of Dhaka, Gallery NICA, Yangon, Myanmar, 2004; LAAL: The Passion of Zahoor-ul Akhlaq, Gallery of Mississauga, Ontario, 2003; 2nd Young Artists’ Exhibition from Bangladesh, Gallery Kusabue, Japan, 2001, Translation, Displacement and Actualisation, Gallery ’68-elf’, Cologne and Veri-nice-saari 2000, a performance and installation art show, Jyvaskyla, Finland, 2000. A Travelling Exhibition in South Asia in Kathmandu, Thimpu, Kolkata and Dhaka, 1994.

Lipi has been invited for residencies such as Skill and Knowledge Sharing Programme at pARTage, Mauritius, 2010; RM Studio Residency, Lahore, Pakistan, 2008; Gasworks Residency Programme, London, 2005; NICA, Yangon, Myanmar, 2004; National Workshops for Arts and Crafts, Copenhagen, 2004; IMMA, The Irish Museum of Modern Art,Ireland, Cill Rialaig Project, Ballinskelligs, Co.Kerry, Ireland, Gallery ’68-elf’, Cologne, Germany and a residency initiated by the Arts Council of Central Finland, Jyvaskyla, Finland in 2000. Lipi has also been involved with numerous workshops which are held in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Taiwan.
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source: guggenheimorg

b. 1969, Gaibandha, Bangladesh

Tayeba Begum Lipi was born in 1969 in Gaibandha, Bangladesh. She completed an MFA in drawing and painting at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1993. In 2002, she cofounded Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh’s first artist-run alternative arts platform, dedicated to organizing exhibitions, enabling international dialogue and exchange, and providing support to the country’s artists through residencies, workshops, and funding. Lipi’s practice engages painting, printmaking, installation, and video to comment on themes including the politics of gender and female identity.

For the video I Wed Myself (2010), Lipi portrays a bride with traditional makeup and formal attire preparing for her wedding, then crops her hair and adds a moustache to also adopt the role of groom. Juxtaposing these two roles within a single frame, she stands as both husband- and wife-to-be on the wedding stage, a video of the transformation process projected alongside. By adopting this dual personality, Lipi inquires into the definition of gender and the possibility of possessing both feminine and masculine traits. Addressing societal contradictions between real identities and those rooted in misogyny, she exposes the importance of questioning the sexualized structures that dominate women’s lives in Bangladesh and beyond. Also using iconography based on femininity is Bizarre and Beautiful (2011), an installation of female undergarments crafted from stainless steel razor blades. A stark contrast to the expected sensual materials, the blades create a rigid armor, offering protection for the imagined wearer while issuing a warning to the onlooker. Inspired by the strong women of her childhood, Lipi’s work questions the representation of women’s bodies and the history of their social roles, particularly in Bangladesh, where historical and religious expectations continue to determine what is permissible.

Lipi was awarded Grand Prize at the Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, in 2004. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2000); NICA, Yangon, Myanmar (2004); Gasworks International Residency Programme, London (2005); and Studio RM, Lahore, Pakistan (2008). She was the commissioner for the Bangladesh Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and one of the curators for the Kathmandu International Art Festival, Nepal (2012). She has had solo exhibitions at Alliance Française (1998 and 2004), Gallery 21 (2001), and Bengal Gallery (2007), in Dhaka, and participated in the two-person exhibition Parables of Our Times at Gallery Akar Prakar in Kolkata (2010). Notable group exhibitions include Separating Myth from Reality: Status of Women at the International Art Festival organized by Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu (2009), Jakarta Biennial (2011), Venice Biennale (2011), and Colombo Art Biennial (2012). Lipi lives and works in Dhaka.