Sunara Begum (Bengali: সুনারা বেগম; born 22 September 1984) is an English visual and performance artist, filmmaker, photographer and writer of Bangladeshi descent.
[2] Whilst at Central St Martins College, she spent much of her time recording various visual projects on both abstract and narrative based subject matter, in order to extract, explore and express her artistic vision, primarily through photography and film.
[1] During her studies Begum did several apprenticeships with renowned international visual artists, as well as working as archivist for the Henry Moore Foundation and as research assistant, camera operator and line producer for Halaqah Media.
[2] As a photographer her work has been published in France, UK, China, India and Bangladesh, in magazines and newspapers including Songlines, Le Monde, and L'Parisian.
In 2003, she worked as photographer and stage manager on an experimental piece entitled Pace which was performed by an ensemble at London's Soho Theatre and Tabernacle Arts Centre.
The Griot's Tale is an inter-disciplinary collaboration featuring actor and storyteller Patrice Naiambana and was written and directed by composer and musician Tunde Jegede.
In 2014 Begum worked closely with Tunde Jegede on a new conception entitled, Emidy: He Who Dared To Dream, the life and story of an African Slave who became a composer and virtuoso violinist in C19 England.
In 2011, Begum founded the Chand Aftara Village Teaching Project, where she combines her art forms to share her growing expertise with young people around the world.
She offers multi-sensory workshops across continents in UK, Bangladesh, India, Gambia and Morocco with the primary aim of exploring a variety of stimuli and approaches to creating movement, written text, music and visuals individually and in groups.
Begum works with a team of visual, sound and movement artists to deliver cross disciplinary workshops that can cater for the needs of a broad range of people, places and environments and to engage global communities.
[1] Her work is influenced by East and West, and predominantly explores the relationship between people and their environment with themes of migration, exile, memory, identity, gender and femininity as seen in myth, divinity, both historical and contemporary.
She is the founder of Studio Chand Aftara, an artist's collective dedicated to the exhibition and production of experimental cinema and a space of cultivation, archive for radical, anti-colonial wellness.
[1] Begum is a regular practitioner of yoga, meditation and the healing arts and often visits solitary retreats in UK, India and West Africa.