Isolation. That is something all of us are currently experiencing all over the globe. Initially we thought that staying back home and not being able meet friends & relatives are going to be worst part of quarantine. But little did we know that’s not it, uncertainty is what is actually bothering us the most and we don’t really know when all this is going to be over. It’s not only the virus that we have deal with, we have to deal with our own emotions and our helplessness of not being able to do anything for people.
With thousands of people suffering and dying all over the world, it is becoming more and more onerous for us to focus on anything, even when we are still living comfortably at our homes. Trying to be productive, such as, studying or working feels futile since it can be impossible to put one’s mind to work amid this crisis. Since the books seem like 500 pages of misery and working doesn’t give us the feeling of accomplishment anymore, juniors of my university recently started a campaign called #UnfoldedQuarantine. This campaign “Unfolded quarantine” was initiated by Ipshita Maliat Rahman, a junior from BBA 28th, IBA, University of Dhaka.
Art is always an excellent way of distracting yourself. It promotes creativity, liberates your soul, connects you with people and above all it’s the best way of expressing yourself. What this wholesome batch did is, they came up with an idea of starting something like Inktober, but instead of just drawing, they wanted to include any form of art, for example, sketches, paintings, photos, write-ups, poems and songs etc. Basically, everything you think qualifies as art. Since this is going to be a very memorable phase of our lives, they tried to include this time in their campaign by deciding some themes that are relevant to this situation. For instance, Boredom, Distance, Sanitize, Mask, Online classes and Ghost towns etc. Again, since we don’t know about how long we are going to have to stay back at home, initially they have only decided the themes for a short period and hopefully they are going to come up with new and more creative themes in the upcoming days. However, you don’t really have to strictly abide by the themes. Any form of expression is appreciated according to this campaign.
The procedure of this campaign is pretty simple as well. All you have to do is post your work on your timeline with privacy setting set to public, Use some hashtags such as #UnfoldedQuarantine, #IBABBA27 (your batch i.e. #IBABBA26), #DayX & #Theme (according to your art). Lastly if you want your art to be displayed at the end of the week, you could submit it at their mail address.
Despite being in a business school which is supposed to produce top notch corporate executives, this campaign has brought out the creative side of this amazing bunch of people.
#Boredom
This sketch was done by Partha Modak from BBA 28th emphasizing on the theme Boredom. According to him, sometimes boredom can bring out the worst in us. Boredom works like a shackle that restricts us from expressing ourselves, the jumbled wings here represent that scenario, how it restricts us from flourishing and flying high.
#Mask
This one from Ahzab Ornob, who is also from BBA 28th.
Now all us are wearing masks to protect ourselves from the virus. Hiding from the world, hiding from other people. But aren’t we always wearing masks? Always running away, always hiding? Hiding our insecurities, masking our bottled-up emotions with different types of masks?
#Madhouse
I never knew it was possible to make something as stunning as this album cover on PowerPoint until saw Sibbir Riyan Prottoy from BBA 27th pulling it off.
According to Sibbir, “The band described here is purely fictional and a product of my sheer imagination. This is the story of my non-existent band “Madhouse”. I like to imagine that we play psychedelic songs and our fans go by the name “madlads”. Madlads adore us. They go crazy at our concerts. This is the first look of our album called, “We are all mad here”. Aren’t we all?”
Even though it’s only been 2 months since they arrived in the campus, it’s really impressive how the most recent batch of IBA managed to connect and distract people through art from all the fear, anxiety and despair that is surrounding us. And this campaign is not all, they are thinking about arranging an exhibition dedicated to this campaign after all this is over. It’s great that, during these trying times, young artists are finding ways to express themselves through their art. I look forward to what they do in the near future.