In his 1962 essay The Creative Process, author and poet James Baldwin muses that the role of the artist in society is to “illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is – after all – to make the world a more human dwelling place”. Many artists attempt to spark change, foster empathy, and promote a more inclusive world through their practice, including Sumi Anjuman.
A pioneering visual artist from Bangladesh, she uses her work to question social norms, challenge traditional gender roles, and expose the manifold injustices faced by women and the marginalised in her country. Through powerful visual imagery, Anjuman sheds light on the struggles and resilience of the oppressed, amplifying their voices, and advocating for change. Her mixed-media project River Runs Violet is a moving protest against rape culture, for example, made in collaboration with a young assault survivor called Zana [the name is a pseudonym].
According to Anjuman, on average nearly four women, girls, and children are subjected to physical and/or sexual violence every day in Bangladesh, and rape incidents are on the rise. These statistics are terrifying, but Anjuman was moved to make River Runs Violet by both these facts and the representation of such violence in the Bangladeshi press. Stuck at home during Covid-19 she started to read about such cases, she says, and was disturbed “by not only the number of incidents but how the media portrayed rape sufferers”.
Working with Zana, her series relates her collaborator’s harrowing experience but also crafts narratives and visual representations that focus on patriarchal oppression, hoping to ignite a dialogue that demands change. “By integrating a diverse photographic manner, the aesthetic of my practice evolves into a poetic yet magic realism fabric to perform a non-violent dialogue within contemporary society,” Anjuman explains. “In parallel, my multivocal methodology echoes the notions of inclusivity, while the context of my artistic endeavour often attempts to make a strong cerebral as well as emotive impact on the onlooker.”