বাসা (basha) is the Bangla word used to describe a home or a nest, yet only when exceeding the physical qualities of a living space: when that is too, an emotional shelter. Nest – বাসা, the debut solo exhibition by British Bangladeshi artist Jannat Alam (b. 1997, London), emerges from a

yearning for a primal sense of comfort and protection expected to be found in such spaces. In

Alam’s nest, however, the script is flipped, and trembling awaits at the door.

​

Nest – বাসা is an installation as much as an experiment. The process that shaped it gradually unfolded through a quiet and slow practice. This involved a combination of time spent inhabiting the space, together with its sense of confinement, and the autonomy that the work dynamic afforded: being, by agreement, left to it . A principle of non-interference and a level of privacy established in this way of working allowed into the room some notion of freedom – however contradictory it may sound to address freedom in a secluded space.

 

Ultimately, freedom and spontaneity prove fundamental for an artist whose practice investigates both bodily and mental relationships to space. Alam’s expression is grounded on the visible – only with that one can play hide-and-seek – but it transcends the visual by relying on a whole combination of other senses, from tactile perception to intuition, which help shape an atmosphere. More than a look, the space created by Alam carries a feel.

 

It is not surprising that words may fail to adequately define it. Maybe a threat, maybe a mystery, maybe about oppression, maybe about relief… After all, a sense of inadequacy of words aligns with the silence that permeates Alam's way of working: the slow inhabiting, sensing, responding intuitively, and adjusting – adjusting spontaneously and incessantly – never announced. Alam works with, and through, the unknown, with so much in the work left hidden within. All we are left with are hints, and they unsettle our memories and our imagination.

 

In the room, ropes and tree branches are flimsily tied to one another, turned into obstacles for hesitation. They reinforce an instability that threatens it all: one false move and everything shakes, just as each arrival and departure causes, by the mere gesture of opening the door – that act which may transform everything.

 

Through the walls, gestural drawings, scribbles, and writings are juxtaposed by a range of objects that seem to each find their own, unusual way of connecting to one another. Ropes, paper, tree branches, a rusty sign, and a broken lamp are positioned by being nailed, clamped, stapled, taped up, balanced on, and tied in. The very concept of at t ach ment manifests itself through varying degrees of endurance or transience.

 

In Nest – বাসা, writing plays a part in surfacing limitations – of walls, words, and movement. Some

writings are visible, legible, and easily relatable. Some are hidden under layers of oil, spray paint, paper, and tape. Some are only legible for those who are familiar – be it with the artist’s handwriting (always so personal), with an experience, or with each corner where pain is so used to hiding.

 

The experience of taking over a room and dwelling there, in privacy and with time, eventually faces a personal choice: how far to advance, how deep to go, how much vulnerability to welcome, in and out. As Nest – বাসা becomes a space where written words can only be grasped partially between other lines, this installation calls for intuition, turned into a space one cannot really enter – it enters you instead. “The birds have let loose.”

 

 

CECILIA VILELA

​

/

​

Jannat Alam (b. 1997, London) is a visual artist of Bangladeshi heritage based in London. She completed an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2025 and holds a BA in Architecture (RIBA Part 1) from the University of Westminster. Since 2025, Alam has staged a series of guerrilla exhibitions across London. In the same year, she presented SWITCH, an exhibition in collaboration with artist In Hwa Choi, and published her first independent publication, Witness, launched at Offprint London, at Tate Modern. Nest – বাসা is Jannat Alam’s debut solo exhibition.

 

/

​

CASA TOMADA is a series of three solo exhibitions of site-specific installations created for a 3m-wide cube that visitors enter alone. Exploring themes of their own choice, invited artists create works that become places for visitors to inhabit at their own pace. Casa Tomada explores the everyday negotiations between isolation and coexistence, ownership and control. Cutting across the varied artistic languages of the three participants, what unites them is their ability to turn exhibitions into intimate encounters. The project takes place at 92 Webster Road – RHFA, an arts space that has a 50-year history of shaping the art scene in Bermondsey, London. Casa Tomada is an initiative to reactivate this space through a collaboration between Cecilia Vilela, curating the project, and Ron Henocq, hosting it. The 3m-wide cube that Casa Tomada responds to is a legacy of when the space hosted Matt’s Gallery, between 2018 and 2023.

 

/

​

3/3 Jannat Alam: Nest – বাসা

21 February – 15 March 2026

Casa Tomada

92 Webster Road – RHFA

@92websterroad

​

​

DOWNLOAD