Explaining DhakaYeah to Dhakaiyas
There is a caveat though, the local art scene has yet to fully validate digital artforms and Dhakaiyas have a cognitive gap between canvas art and digital prints. This is made even harder by the fact that they are an anonymous entity not unlike Banksy and want to speak with their work and not their words
DhakaYeah is an art house from the 2010s that makes and sells prints to the masses both locally and internationally. What sets them apart in the world of contemporary illustrations is an absolutely unique aesthetic that deals in magical realism, nostalgia and resonance with the modern crowd.
DhakaYeah's prints are available for sale in various sizes from their website. Their instagram page is quite active, their kiosks tend to pop-up in the best places, hawking their products and prints which are very hard to pass up on. Jatra in Banani has a DhakaYeah kiosk.
DhakaYeah is one of the only brands in Dhaka that celebrates our city and makes it look cool. Dhakaiyas are no stranger to the ennui of the capital, yet DhakaYeahs body of work will evoke a sense of nostalgia and wistfulness if you were born and raised here.
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If you have even a slight passing appreciation for art, a print from DhakaYeah will give your interior a captivating quality. If a foreigner wanted to know about the soul, culture and values of your city, any print of DhakaYeah would present the best and whimsical aspects of it.
There is a caveat though, the local art scene has yet to fully validate digital artforms and Dhakaiyas have a cognitive gap between canvas art and digital prints. This is made even harder by the fact that they are an anonymous entity not unlike Banksy and want to speak with their work and not their words.
Home vs Away
Herein lies perhaps the last and only roadblock to DhakaYeah, they do not lack originality, love or even awards. Support and value however, seem to be in short supply.
One of the biggest awards they received was from the Lahore Digital Arts Festival, in early 2021 through a digital art competition. Then they were commissioned by Standard Chartered for a limited edition credit card in honour of Bangladesh's golden anniversary, which came out in July 2021.
Aarong commissioned them shortly afterwards to make a digital interactive map of Bangladesh in August of the same year. As of right now, DhakaYeah are doing a series on the iconic Grameenphone ads from the dawn of Bangladeshi Telecommunication. And yet, there is a real struggle in the art scene between legacy artists and the dawn of digital art.
At the corporate level, it's not everyday that you see a domestic corporation commission an art piece for something so capitalist as a credit card. These types of partnerships tend to be fraught, and a minefield of miscommunication and misassumptions. Most entities come to the table with very little time and even less direction as to what they want.
When it comes to extranational entities however, DhakaYeah rarely, if ever, suffers from any of the aforementioned problems.
At the consumer level, there seems to be a gap of evaluation between a private commission or even a print by DhakaYeah vs a canvas painting by a celebrated artist such as Shohag Parvez. Some will even haggle and question their price tags. This can be attributed to the digital nature of their production.
Infrastructure for the Working Artist
When an entity like DhakaYeah carves out its own space and is available for commissions, it stands to reason that the people who are seeking to commission them unwittingly go about it like a fish out of water. Art is such a subjective affair, as such, creativity needs to be channelled properly and fine tuned to maintain the integrity of all involved parties. A journey is just as important as its destination, you can take the scenic route and stop at every spot along the way or you can beeline towards your goal, both approaches are viable.
Domestic corporations either don't have that luxury or lack time management expertise. It is also not uncommon for patrons to be ambivalent and unsure about their destinations. DhakaYeah has dealt with the latter set of circumstances so many times, that they literally have a questionnaire for clients who show up without a design document or even a basic outline.
To put it succinctly, literally anyone can commission DhakaYeah's particular art style privately or publicly. Asking them to warp or compromise their established aesthetic is the equivalent of putting a square peg in a round hole.
Luck is simply hard work and preparation meeting opportunity. Without opportunity you can have neither success nor failure. Stagnation is the true death of any artform. If post-modern, avant-garde, magical realism and other genres of art aren't exhibited how will the masses cultivate an appreciation for it? The playing field needs to be levelled, the Bangladeshi art scene needs a healthy dose of creative darwinism and equal opportunity.
DhakaYeah's success is ensured through their work ethic and sheer originality, it is only a matter of time. You would be hard pressed to find any comparable entity that portrays our capital with such whimsical and tender affection.
There have been countless articles singing the praises of their nostalgic yet avant-garde style. A picture is worth a thousand words, so let's not bandy about them, your eyes and taste should be the judge and jury for their amazing body of work.
Ethos, Pathos and Logos
There is a higher purpose behind DhakaYeah, it is not just to make money through art. They are actively trying to inspire, foster and lead by example a whole new generation of digital illustrators.
During its formative years, DhakaYeah got props from the very same illustrators that inspired them, it is akin to your idols validating your toil. Their contemporary inspirations are Yuko Shimizu of Japan, Pakistani Shehzil Malik and Indian illustrator Reya Ahmed.
One good deed deserves another and DhakaYeah wants to pay it forward. It is not uncommon for them to highlight their peers on Instagram. DhakaYeah is semi-established in a place where the establishment doesn't even 'get' what they are doing.
At the intersection of corporate interest and artistic integrity, hearts get broken and spirits get dimmed. They have somehow navigated pitfalls and lack of structures to become a brand with a customer base that reaches even the remotest parts of the world.
DhakaYeah is proof positive that you need not compromise your craft in the pursuit of business opportunities. They are the godfathers of new digital illustrations from and about our culture. Much like Don Corleone they sometimes look at the art scene and wonder "Look how they massacred my boy."
