Part of the powerful content in ROM’s current exhibition Being and Belonging: Contemporary Women Artists from the Islamic World and Beyond is a pair of stiletto shoes and a child’s dress, both made from stainless-steel razor blades. Why did the artist, Tayeba Begum Lipi, choose those items to sculpt, and why with those materials?

How do you feel when you look at these works? What is it about visual art that makes it a compelling medium for expressing ideas and emotions, and for inviting shared personal experiences? Chat about these questions and more while meeting people and making new friends in an afternoon program that includes a visit to the exhibition, tea and cookies, and thought-provoking, engaging discussions. To complete the afternoon, ROM curator Fahmida Suleman sits with the artist for a facilitated conversation guided by your questions, insights, and personal responses to the works.

Program Partners: Friends of South Asia, Canadian Community Arts Initiative

 
About the Artist:

Tayeba Begum Lipi

Born in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, Tayeba Begum Lipi received her MFA at the Institute of Fine Art, University of Dhaka and is the Co-Founder and a Trustee of Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh.

She has curated her works for solo exhibitions and projects in Singapore, Istanbul, London, Dhaka, New York City, Hong Kong, and Delhi along with major duo projects with Mahbubur Rahman in the US and Shanghai. Additionally, her works have appeared at the 54 Venice Biennale (2011), UBS MAP Exhibition (NYC, Singapore & Hong Kong (2013-2014), Centraal Museum Netherlands (2023-2024), and here at ROM in Being and Belonging: Contemporary Women Artists from the Islamic World and Beyond (2023-2024). She has also been included in the publication 50 Contemporary Women Artists: Groundbreaking Contemporary Art from 1960 to Now (Schiffer Publishing, editors John Gosslee and Heather Zises, 2018).

Facilitator

Dr. Fahmida Suleman

Dr. Fahmida Suleman is Curator of the Islamic World collections at ROM and lead curator of Being and Belonging. She recently curated Unmasking the Pandemic: From Personal Protection to Personal Expression (2021) and is cross-appointed as Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (status only). Suleman was formerly Phyllis Bishop Curator for the Modern Middle East at the British Museum and co-curated the museum’s groundbreaking permanent Islamic gallery in 2018. Her publications include Textiles of the Middle East and Central Asia: The Fabric of Life (2017) and People of the Prophet’s House: Artistic and Ritual Expressions of Shi’i Islam (2015, ed.).

Event captured on November 26, 2023.