NO ONE HOME

No One Home is a solo exhibition of installations, drawings, and video artwork by eminent artist Tayeba Begum Lipi. The exhibition presents a series of objects of women's daily life made of safety pins and stainless razor blades: heeled shoes, handbags, a sewing machine, and a bathtub - displayed in a gallery space, these personal objects create a feeling of hollow intimacy for their owner, who is nowhere to be seen. The viewer is left with the strange impression of peering through an empty apartment: the lights are on, but no one is home. The use of stainless steel razor blades has been a long-standing practice for the artist and has become, over the years, her signature technique. In a witty endeavor, Tayeba Begum Lipi assembles artworks with sharp material originally conceived to cut and tear apart. Although metallic blades are commonly associated with masculine use, the artist adds to the paradox by creating feminine and delicate objects. For Tayeba Begum Lipi, vivid childhood memories further associate razor blades with the feminine. Coming from a very large family where a newborn was frequently expected, she has clear recollections of blades being sanitized in boiling water and then used by mid-wives to separate the child from the mother. The blade thus becomes a symbol of women's strength and resilience. No One Home is a remarkably coherent exhibition in which artist Tayeba Begum Lipi continues to explore the themes that have long haunter her - the nature of womanhood, the place of women in society, the ephemeral nature of life - in a characteristically candid endeavor.