Young visual artist Mayesha Islam Abanti has depicted her painful journey when she had undergone treatment at her first solo exhibition at Safiuddin Shilpalay at Dhanmondi in the capital Dhaka.
The four-day exhibition titled 鈥楢banto鈥� displayed 25 paintings created with acrylic, oil and charcoal on canvas. The exhibition ended on Monday.
She also displayed five installations at the event which was inaugurated on August 1.
The self-taught visual artist has drawn since her childhood with vibrant colours to paint her dreams, but at her teen, a rare illness struck her.
During treatment, she faced multiple major surgeries, went through ICU many times and became a victim of medical negligence in hospital while she took art as therapy.
Her artworks portrayed her emotions, including grief, anger, hurt, shame, guilt, pity and bliss with hope which forced her to use warm and cool colours.
A collage of paintings printed on a big canvas portrayed her hospital journey.
An acrylic painting shows a teen lying in the Highly Dependent Unit after a failure of a surgery. Another painting shows two tired men taking a nap in hospital.聽
Another painting shows a man checking the spirometer which helps to recover after surgery.
An artwork inspired by Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, shows a man sitting on a sickbed while a woman lying on the man.
Besides the hospital series, she portrayed storms in the sea, fishes, landscapes with a series of portraits of her family members and different characters she met in novels and films.
鈥楧uring treatment, art took another form, it became therapeutic. It started to heal me and I never lost hope, I never gave up on myself,鈥� Mayesha said, adding that she tried to illustrate the mental sufferings of her family members.
Mayesha is currently studying LLB Law with criminology at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
鈥業 had been a victim of medical negligence that almost took my life. I want to fight for the voiceless people in my country and raise a voice against the unjust healthcare system,鈥� Mayesha said.