Abysmal silence and impressions of darkly drenched landscapes and faces sewn over by gold, Ashfika Rahman’s photographs in Files of the Disappeared piece together stories of erasure. In recent years, more than 4,000 young people have been taken by police force in borderlands in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia , without reason or justification. Their lives after confinement and torture are hushed and silent.
The presence of physical torture is hinted at but the dark scenes resonate with silence. Her subjects are half visible, lurking or emerging from isolation. Mouths sewn over by gold thread and handwritten notes reach to tell the viewer what the voice can no longer speak. The weight of gold is symbolic, prioritizing the law over the voice of the individuals that have suffered.
