Between Stillness and Cacophony: Reading Sound in Light and Nature with Sarker Protick

Lens-based artist, Sarker Protick began his journey in the arts as a musician. He formed his own band in Dhaka in 2005, before shifting to image making in 2009. He studied Professional Photography at Pathshala – The South Asian Media Institute, where he is now a faculty member. While Protick describes himself as an image-maker, the medium of sound is a recurring narrator in his practice. Through the interplay of sound and light, he layers the sensory experience of his installations. The visuals elicit multiple emotions as they lay bare the deep undercurrents of personal loss, grief, mortality and fear. By working constantly with the form of sound and light, Protick weaves in nature as an omnipresent being. His work acknowledges the need for recognising coexistence as a process of life, and perhaps also a form of healing.

Narrating the importance of light and sound in the installations Lohit (Origin) (2016–17), Rasmi (2017–20), and O Great Life / অন্তঃশিরা (2020), this conversation weaves its way into the artist’s most recent works, A Study in Vastness (2020–21). Here, he observes the moon, the crows and changing light in the sky outside his house, as well as his mother’s hair. Through this act of marking deep time, Protick invites the viewers to recognise their links to their surrounding habitats. As he meditates on the notion of the space of the home, the works aim to expand the audience’s awareness of their everyday ties with nature—which may thread through views from windows to walks on the seaside and internal waves of memories and emotions.

^{(Featured Image: Murder, from A Study in Vastness by Sarker Protick, 2020-21. Image courtesy the artist.)}

Conversation recorded on 27 September 2021.

In case you missed the first part of the conversation, you may catch it here.