Anonya: Tayeba Begum Lipi’s Work with Dhaka's Transgender Community

One of the founding members of Dhaka’s Britto Arts Trust in 2002, Tayeba Begums Lipi’s work explores the body as a site—locating the performativity of gender within social expectations. The artist’s engagement and collaborations with diverse communities has been a part of how she thinks through not just her own practice but also her relationships with herself, others and the past. In 2014, a curatorial brief by Mahbubur Rahman for an exhibition, Cross Casting, at the Britto Arts Trust inspired Lipi to begin conversations with the transgender community in Dhaka. In this interview, Lipi shares her process of confronting and overcoming the childhood fears and biases that had been instilled in her against the transgender community.

While speaking about the making of her video Home (2014) with Anonya, the subject of the film; the artist began to understand the impact of deeply embedded layers of rejection that contemporary society has inflicted upon this community. Lipi takes us through her journey of a growing and an ongoing friendship with Anonya, allowing the viewer to engage with the ways in which marginalisation is constructed from early childhood experiences, shaped by wanting acceptance. Lipi’s work emphasises the need for conversations based on the humane understanding of emotion and belonging.

^{(Featured Image: Home. Tayeba Begum Lipi. Dhaka, 2014. Still from Double-Channel Video. Image courtesy of the artist.)}

Interview taken on 09 August 2021

In case you missed the first part of the conversation, please click here.

All images featured in the video are works by Tayeba Begum Lipi. Dhaka, 2014–15. Images courtesy of the artist.