Whiny Women,

About the event

WIAB’s inaugural event, ‘Whiny Women’ focuses on the complexity, contexts, & critiques of these representations of the South Asian female form. The aim is to explore the diversity of representation within the home, workplace, pop culture, arenas of desire, and self-expression, highlighting the body and beyond; the processes of viewing, creation, use. 

Open to artists of all identifying genders and walks of life, it is not limited to visual arts. As a mixed media exhibit, they welcome photographers, performance artists, filmmakers, sculptors, writers, poets, as well as painters and animators – whatever medium in which the artist finds justice. 

The event will be held in Dhaka Gallery on January 4th and 5th, and the application criteria is heavily essay-based, judging on the basis of conceptual substance as much as visual communication. A maximum of 15 selected artists will be chosen to display their art. 

Why should you sponsor?

- Women in Arts, Bangladesh is a steadily growing organisation, and you are able to empower the 500+ women within our network by bringing them together to create art, and more importantly, sell their art, make their income, in order to put it in YOUR bank 

- Within the past day we have had over 1000 responses to our event, and aim to target 5000. Given that only 2 of the people who see your advertisement and involvement in our event decide to open a savings account in your branch, you will gain back the money you invested into your bank as a tentative bronze sponsor. As a gold sponsor, you would require 6 of these women, which is a mere 1.2% 

- With your funding, we can afford effective, organic marketing that will help our PR as much as yours by making this charitable investment to our tentative non-profit organisation. 

- Our curation team is 30% consistent of foreign links, so people from home and 

abroad are expected to attend this exhibition, bringing possible foreign currency in your way 

- As gold sponsor, you will benefit from being advertised on three different mediums: print, online and Radio/TV as well as being TITULAR sponsor 

- Any profits made from the company will be stored within a bank account by YOUR company, so your investment travels within a cycle and returns right back to you 

- Given the success of our organisation and this event, Women in Arts Bangladesh can continue to work with you together to create bi-annual events with charitable foundations

Rafayet Huda

In our ever-evolving world today, image is dominant. Society feels saturated with the visual – social media, horrific news cycles, celebrity culture, advertising. Appearance has always been tangled with worth – namely how much worth certain looking bodies are entitled. When complicated by gender, class, race, sexuality, and power relations, appearance as an idea gives insight into the structures of survival we’ve been forced to navigate. 

But what do the politics of being actually look like? What consequences do they have, particularly for “womanhood”? Women cannot be denied – but how has this “woman” been created? In a complex region rich in heritage like South Asia, the idea of “woman” is reductive. Deep-rooted cultures of shame, silence, and stigma, on top of colonial histories, have estranged the relationship between presence and female bodied lived experience – she has become beyadob, pagol, “shameless”, “indecent”, “Westernized”, “undesirable”, “too loud”, “hysterical”, and “wrong.” 

From this area of struggle, Women in Arts, Bangladesh started as a Facebook group for girls and women to share their stories about navigating the creative arts industry within Bangladesh, and slowly became a place for hobbyists, professionals, and semi-professionals alike to showcase their art - whether it’s make-up, filmmaking, performance or visual arts. It is not bound by any single medium. Growing to almost 300 members within the past week, it now strives to become a supportive network for creative women. 

Contact the Organizer Contact the Organizer