The Arts in New York City

My Family: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The title of my family history collage is “My Family: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” This collage is divided into three distinct sections, from left to right, representing three main stages in my family’s journey. The first section is a sea of vibrant fish swimming freely under a stretch of rice. Divided by a thick, rugged-edged line, the subsequent section is a land of gold with embroidery using a Bangladeshi stitching technique. Finally, the last section is an array of slightly overlapping colors.

The first section of the collage represents Bangladesh, the starting point of my family’s journey. I chose to use fish, a vital economic asset of the country, and rice, the main food source of the country, to represent Bangladesh. The fish and rice, however, hold meaning within themselves. The vibrant sea of fish represents the way my parents view Bangladesh: a land of culture, flavor, color, and liveliness. On a more contrasting level, the stretch of plain, white rice represents the reason why my parents chose to leave Bangladesh: it is a country lacking opportunities and where people refuse to entertain thoughts “outside the box.” The splashes of red on the rice represent my grandfather’s death during Bangladesh’s war for independence. His death at a fairly young age affected my family’s history significantly because he left behind six children, the youngest of which was my mother.

The circular shape on the collage, composed of two rings, represents my family. The outer, red ring represents my mother and the inner, blue ring represents my father. Although my father is the head of our household, my mother holds the family together, which is why she is the outer, binding ring. As one looks at the collage from left to right, the circular object changes, as a violet circle is added to the center. This violet circle represents my siblings and me, the product of a combination of blue and red.

The second section of my collage is a “land of gold,” which is how my parents viewed America before coming here. They wanted to leave Bangladesh and come to America because it is rich with opportunities and is open to a wide range of views and ideas. The embroidered paisleys, stitched using a Bengali sewing method, is symbolic of the culture and morals of our background, which my parents have instilled in us despite growing up oceans away from Bangladesh. My parents have also ensured that my siblings and I are in touch with our religion, Islam, which is why I placed a golden Allahu pendant on the second section of the collage.

The first section and the “land of gold” are divided by a rough-edged black line, which represents the transition into a new country. The line is dark with rough edges because transition into a new country and starting a whole new life is difficult and full of hardships.

The third and final section of the collage is an array of different colors. These colors are in random order and cut unconventionally so no two pieces are alike. This section is a representation of “tomorrow.” The future can hold anything, good or bad, but countless possibilities nonetheless.

My first step in making this collage was to separate the paper into three different sections. For the first section, I glued on rice to represent the reason why my parents left Bangladesh and I drew a sea of fish, using oil pastels, to illustrate my parents’ views on their country. The rugged black line, drawn by charcoal, represents the difficult transition into a new country. I used a golden gift bag to represent the “land of gold”, and when I didn’t achieve the type of gold I had envisioned, I decided to use glitter. Lastly, I used construction paper to make an overlapping section of different colors to symbolize the future and what is yet to come our way.

Preeti Choudhury