Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.    Working with terracotta, wood, mosaic, and installation requires deep material understanding—how do you choose which material a story should be built from?

• ANSWER 2.   I begin by identifying the “mood” of the story—whether it is hard or soft, flowing or still, introspective or outward-facing. Then I look at the physical qualities of the material.

  Terracotta carries warmth and human emotion; wood reveals layers of time through its grain; mosaic gathers fractured memories into a unified whole; and installation pulls the viewer into the heart of the narrative.

  In other words, the story chooses the medium—I only help it find the right body.

Jayanta Kumar Talukdar
3D Mural & Installation Artist

MEDIUM:  clay, wood, terracotta, mosaic, sculpture, and installation

BIO:   I am Jayanta Kumar Talukdar—an artist in Dhaka whose life has unfolded through an ongoing conversation with clay, wood, and fire. For the past twenty-two years, my practice has expanded across terracotta, wood, mosaic, sculpture, and installation. My work seeks the place where the touch of a hand becomes a lasting mark on the body of time.

My pieces emerge through an intimate process—soft clay becomes firm, and the traces of my fingers slowly turn into stories. I never fit myself into a fixed “style” or “definition”; whatever I see, touch, or feel becomes the center of my creation.

To me, art is a language of the mind and the body—holding the weight of labor, the pressure of memory, the scent of solitude, and the scars of survival. My work carries a restless calm, and I believe deeply that it is people who ultimately have the power to change the world. 

FACEBOOK:    TerracottaBangladesh

QUESTION 3.    Your work carries cultural narrative at its core—what is one nuance or truth about Bangladeshi identity that you hope viewers feel, even without explanation?

• ANSWER 3.     The Bangladesh I see is both gentle and fierce—a place where soil, scent, humid air, shifting rivers, and the quiet resilience of people create a complex softness. I want viewers to feel that the beauty of this country does not lie in ornamentation, but in texture; even the fading red of an old brick carries the warmth of our identity.

QUESTION 1.    Your murals span traditional and contemporary methods—how do you decide when a concept should honor heritage versus challenge it?

• ANSWER 1.    I begin by examining the origin of the narrative—whether it is rooted in regional memory and folk experience, or whether its visual vocabulary demands a new interpretation. Some ideas require silence and respect even before you touch them; in those cases, I keep the language of tradition intact. But when society, perception, or emotion has shifted, I break the form and rebuild it anew.

  
  For me, tradition is not a fixed monument—it is a living river, sometimes calm, sometimes eroding its own banks.

Mather Sathi (Partners of the Field)

Shaplar Nirbota (Silence of the Water Lily)

Joler Ghate (Rituals of the Waterside)

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Jayanta Kumar Talukdar.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

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