Gloomy Sunday

2015 – 2016

Gloomy Sunday is about the female as a homemaker closeted by thoughts of marriage, kitchen, body, womb, and child. My departure from being a broadcast journalist to an artist liberated my social narrative from mere news to a more psychological experience, where I confronted my gendered upbringing, and questioned my fears and desires.

I became depressed while spending long days alone in a house after a quickly planned marriage. Time slowed down. My companions were the kitchen, the television, the mirror, and my thoughts of having a child. I was jobless and almost disconnected from the outside world, memory my only tether.

Produced at home, my photographs create the artifice of studio-like tableaux, featuring shiny fabric, disguises, costumes, and everyday plastic objects. These scenes overlap sexual, social, and political ritual with religious symbolism through characters that might come across as bizarre or otherworldly. They appear as if engaged in ritualistic prayer while confronting the fear of death, violence, and exploitation.

My absurdist approach is a way to connect tropes of the body, the veil, domestic life, and fantasy tinged with darkness and foreboding. It also captures personal moments plumbing my deepest secrets — the fact that most of my Sundays were in fact gloomy.

Salma Abedin Prithi, a graduate of the Pathshala South Asian Media Academy, whose portraits often combine ritual and bodily iconography. Her recent essay Dear Love shows ordinary people posing for the camera intimately with their dear ones while talking about their relationships. At Chobi Mela IX, she exhibited a series of staged portraits of city dwellers that illustrate intimacy and physical encounter through body and gesture. Her solo exhibition Dry Run, 2016, was shown at Kalakendra, Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2015, she was shortlisted for Bengal Foundation’s Aminul Islam Young Artist Award and won Second Prize in Nikon Photo Award’s Open Theme Category. She is the recipient of the 2016 Samdani Art Award at Dhaka Art Summit.