Reading Poetry, Burning Head, sculptural installation by Shohrab Jahan
‘Reading poetry, Burning Head’, by Shohrab Jahan is a life sized sculpture of a woman reading poetry, cast and constructed during a residency at the Makerere University Fine Arts Department.
The piece was shown as part of the Art, Archive and Activism projects collaborative ‘Temporary Exhibition’ shown at the Uganda National Museum, Kampala, 2020 alongside work from Emilie Flower, Jim Joel, Ruth Kelly and Susan Kiguli. The sculpture stood in the final room of the exhibition and burnt down from the head.
Breathing life
Into words
Which suddenly rise up […]
Take shape
Become armies
The words become armies […]
Announcing themselves
As what we know but had forgotten
Excerpt from ‘Reaching Within Us to Beyond Us’, by Susan Nalugwa Kiguli
the process
The sculpture was made from a cast of Oliver Naggayi (Olivia) who works for the Makerere University Fine Arts Department as a life model. The practice of making sculptures from nude models is discouraged in Chittagong, while in Uganda there are no restrictions regarding sculptural forms.
Public sculpture
In 2019 Shohrab Jahan created a sculpture for the Chittagong University to celebrate the 1971 liberation war. The sculpture was produced from casts of students from the University, and is the first piece of public sculpture depicting the human form to have been put on display in Chittagong since the liberation war. In this film, made by Emilie Flower, Shohrab explains the concept behind the sculpture.
