Alliance Française de Dhaka will open Chowkath (চৌকাঠ), the second solo exhibition by Dhaka-based multidisciplinary artist Sarah Jabin, on Friday, 31 July 2026, at 6:00 PM at La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka. The exhibition explores the relationship between women, domestic spaces, memory, identity, and the cultural traditions passed down through generations of Bengali households, a press release said.
Eminent artist and writer Mustafa Zaman and Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of France in Bangladesh, will attend the opening ceremony.
Drawing from research, personal observation, and material culture, Chowkath examines the often-unseen roles women play as custodians of family memory and cultural heritage. The exhibition takes its title from the Bengali word chowkath, meaning a threshold or doorway—a symbolic space between the private and the public, the past and the present, and individual memory and collective history.
The exhibition brings together four distinct bodies of work, each exploring these ideas through a different material and artistic language. In Bon Void, linocut prints trace the evolving identity of women from childhood to adulthood. The Diminished Time uses soap as a sculptural medium to revisit the architectural heritage of Old Dhaka’s homes from the 1950s to the 1990s, reflecting on the gradual disappearance of familiar domestic spaces.
In the textile-based series Sharshi, Jabin turns her attention to household interiors and the enduring yet frequently overlooked presence of women within them. The exhibition is completed by delicate copper-wire line drawings that capture rituals, traditions, and fragments of a cultural landscape gradually fading with time.
Through these works, Jabin positions herself as both an observer and a witness to a society in transition. Her practice brings together objects, spaces, and memories that connect generations. For older audiences, the works may evoke memories of familiar homes, customs, and lived experiences, while for younger viewers, they offer a window into the everyday worlds inhabited by their mothers and grandmothers.
By transforming the chowkath—the threshold—into a conceptual space of reflection, the exhibition invites audiences to consider what is preserved, what is lost, and what remains embedded in the spaces we call home.
With its focus on womanhood, domesticity, memory, and cultural inheritance, Chowkath offers a deeply personal yet collectively resonant reflection on the changing landscape of Bengali life and the fragile narratives that connect generations.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until 8 August 2026.
