This series of eighteen triptych was commissioned by the National art gallery of Maldives in 2008. Hence “Theyokulain Dhivehi raaje” curated by Mohamed Mamdhooh Waheed was Eagan’s first solo exhibition.
These paintings depicted life of the rural Maldives some here decades ago. These paintings depicted Women washing pots by the beach, and women weaving Cajun, houses and dwellings made from Cajun and thatch. Wooden jetties and children playing by the sea. Sailing trade boats and fisher men, taro and kankun harvesting, women in colourful traditional dress fetching water from the mosque well. And a scene of men and women performing Boduberu. Vanishing horizon that contradicts vogue and thinking of contemporary Maldivian.
Ala olhu, oil on canvas, triptych 70cm x 150cm 2008, is one of the 18 triptych exhibited at this show.
The exhibition ‘Lionfish and the plastic bag, Plastic bag and the Lionfish’ is artist Eagan’s exploration of the various forces competing beneath the surface of the sea: the lionfish symbolizing life, survival and positivity, and the plastic bag, an icon of destruction and negativity.
Once thriving and abundant coral fringes and marine life. The city has been more recently sheet-piled along all its peripheries; it is now a concrete fortress in the sea. As the city of Male’ suffocates and struggles for space above the sea, beneath the surface, along the tetrapod’s over the shattered and almost dead reef slopes of Male’, common and colourful reef fishes are still struggling to survive.
Maldives Islands has been one of the world’s most beautiful and pristine marine ecosystems for thousands of years. However, the lives of Maldivians, as well as the reef fish and corals which live in this fragile ecosystem are increasingly at risk, because of pollution, climate change and global warming