BUS STOP BANGLADESH was a three-part public intervention held on June 4, 12, 19, 2013 from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm outside the bus stop at Mt. Rainier City Hall featuring the stories and art of 12 women from Katakhali Village, Bangladesh, an island community adversely affected by climate change, presented by artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose, and sponsored by Art Lives Here through the National Endowment for the Arts.
Through spoken word, soundscape, and installation, Monica Jahan Bose brings the art and stories of a dozen women from a remote Bangladeshi island to Mt. Rainier. The intervention each day displays four saris created with woodblock and hand-painted words and images by the women of Katakhali Village, Bangladesh, as part of Storytelling with Saris, a collaborative printmaking and story project which highlights the achievement of literacy by women of Katakhali. These saris hang from Mt. Rainer City Hall, visually representing the story of each woman’s achievements and courage in rebuilding her life, learning to read, and surviving successive cyclones and other effects of climate change. Bose and her assistants interact with commuters and residents, handing out biographical cards about each of the 12 Katakhali women and inviting them to touch the saris, wear saris, and engage in dialogue. Many people came out for the whole afternoon, spontaneously assisted with the installation, and shared their own experiences of struggling with literacy.
The saris hanging from an American municipal building recreates the visual sensation of saris hanging while drying in the village. The intervention includes sounds, voices, and songs recorded directly from the village, immersing the public with the sounds of a remote area in Bangladesh merged with the urban sounds of the bus stop. The juxtaposition of the rural with the urban, and the climate-impacted with the carbon-emitting, results in several dichotomous visual and auditory relationships between place, culture, and history. Bus Stop Bangladesh calls attention to the issues of global literacy and climate change and the critical role of women in bringing about social change.
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