Ata Mojlish
Traitor Memories, 2018-2019, mixed media, digital art, photography, 6" X 6" light-box
This image is representative of the disconnect I feel with my home in Bangladesh. In an effort to find these photographs, I hope to find parts of myself as well.
I had made this image after two years of leaving home - when I realized how I had begun to forget about my life in Bangladesh. I realize that there are now photographs that I am unable to remember.
They say when you take a picture, you end up saving that moment forever. I realize how that is wrong.
Describe your artistic style in three words.
Political, Personal, Observational
What's inspiring you right now?
The memories of Dhaka. Of a time when there were no pandemic; when I could buy a plane ticket and fly to my home.
What do you do when you're feeling uninspired?
Over the years as I try to be more productive, I have grown the habit of being too hard on myself. I am now learning how to actively allow myself the time and space that my body requires to be able to create more artwork.
When I am in a loss for inspiration I try not to restlessly seek it out. Instead, no matter how unproductive it may be, I do whatever task that feels right at that moment. During this process, I often listen to the music of Anjan Dutta and more often than not, I am inspired to create.
Tell us something unique about your process.
My art making process is mostly an effort to enable the senses that help manifest awareness on some level. The images are an attempt to shed light on well hidden parts of my own self as well the communities that my work belongs to.
My work starts with photographs that display an accepted definition of reality. They are then reconstructed with the help of digital software, lifting the curtain from several versions of the truth that grew a habit of staying suppressed in plain sight.
What advice do you have for other artists?
I don't want you to feel the pressure of being someone or reaching some sort of a goal. You are a living being. You are enough.
Self- portrait, 2016-2019, mixed media, digital art, photography, 12x12”
The images in this series come from a single self-portrait. With this process of digital re-compositing, I attempt to find pieces of my father.
Ten years after his demise, for the first time ever, I found a few of my father’s belongings. There was a framed portrait. An almost stranger.
Whenever the sense of sheer hopelessness overwhelms and the void intensifies, I take shelter to this portrait and reflect parts of myself through various objects, color, elements, sound, sight and occurrences around me.
Self- portrait, 2016-2019, mixed media, digital art, photography, 12x12”
Self- portrait, 2016-2019, mixed media, digital art, photography, 12x12”
Self- portrait, 2016-2019, mixed media, digital art, photography, 12x12”
Daily Diet, 2020 - ongoing, found images, digital line drawing, 18 x 24”
This image series is part of an ongoing large scale project depicting the power of money. It attempts to criticize the consumerist culture. It does so in a satiric way by positioning text manufactured by major for profit businesses on the backdrop of extremist money/power hungry actions both in history and contemporary times. The mismatch of uplifting text with distressing visual mocks at the dystopia of a capitalist culture.
These four images feature a WWII era bomber plane followed by portraits of the main axis power leaders, Adolf Hitler (Germany), Benito Mussolini (Italy) and Michinomiya Hirohito (Japan).
Daily Diet, 2020 - ongoing, found images, digital line drawing, 18 x 24”
Daily Diet, 2020 - ongoing, found images, digital line drawing, 18 x 24”
Daily Diet, 2020 - ongoing, found images, digital line drawing, 18 x 24”
Living With Uncle Sam, 2020 - ongoing, mixed media, video, digital art, photography, 16:9
The images shown inside this TV are shaped in a way that visually replicates my interaction with daily life in the United States.As I look for a piece of myself in this great country, I take pictures of things that are alien to me. Of places where I do not belong, an idea that’s not familiar enough and a sky too blue to call home.
A native of Bangladesh (b. 1995), Ata Mojlish, currently lives and works in Austin, Texas. Working with a variety of mediums including photography, digital construction of image, video, motion graphics, audio and installations, he researches questions on self exploration, displacement, the political system and the perception of home.