“Elephant in the Room” is an award-winning art installation by renowned Bangladeshi visual artist that was launched at the Dubai Design District (D3). Crafted from used clothing and bamboo, the colourful life-size elephants of Bangladeshi artist Kamruzzaman Shadhin’s latest project tell the story of loss.
D3 is a hub of inspiration for creatives, artists, and designers. It will exhibit this artwork in its walkaways till April 12, 2021.
This project revolves around the occupants of the Kutupalong Refugee camp and the displacement of elephants due to the sudden arrival of the Rohingya community in 2017. With authorities having little time to plan, the Kutupalong Refugee Camp ended up being settled right on top of a number of elephant migration corridors, pathways that the animals use to move from Bangladesh to Myanmar throughout the year.
Over the years, elephants killed a number of refugees as the animals stumbled into camps in attempts to cross the forests, while other groups are trapped within pockets, unable to find a migration path.
The Bangladeshi Artist collected torn out clothes from the people living in the Kutupalong refugees camp and gave them new clothes to wear. Life-size elephants were constructed from bamboo and used-clothing to promote a balanced human co-existence with nature and to raise awareness about elephant conservation within the community. The torn out clothes were sewn by the craftswomen in the community, that were then used to cover the elephants. According to Shahdin ‘This project is an attempt to weave art, community practices, migrant experiences, trauma, and hope in a “kantha” which embodies the struggles of the stateless, be it human or animal, all over the world.’
“This project is an attempt to weave art, community practices, migrant experiences, trauma, and hope in a kantha, which embodies the struggles of the stateless, be it human or animal, all over the world,” Shadhin said in a statement.
“Elephant in the Room” is a part of the “No place like home” exhibition, organised by Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation to raise awareness around conservation and displacement of communities.