“We send each other several emails a day with poems and illustrations,” shares Shradha, who calls herself a ‘chronic blogger’ and has over five blogs consisting of poetry, photographs, drawings and doodles.[break]
“Since we do so much, we thought we should put our creative work out for people to see,” adds Subesh.
So they decided to gear up and create a whole batch of new works for the exhibition.
Shradha, 28, is currently a student of Aesthetics in Norway, while Subesh, 30, is based in Kathmandu as a freelance graphic designer, but is also a professional computer programmer. Both are from Lalitpur.
Very clean in his compositions, Subesh is drawn to typography. “There’s something about fonts,” he says during the launch conversation.
Over at his blog, his works range from posters and photographs to numerous experiments with text and fonts, creating new custom fonts as well. In one work, momos neatly line up on a yellow paper. In another, an old photograph of Dharahara is sliced into a digital collage.
“Text is everywhere – on TV, at the airport, in the subway,” he continues. Subesh finds Kathmandu visually polluted and is inspired by German advertisements instead because of their minimal nature. His works too are minimal – from the layout, choice of words and colors.
A writer and a visual artist, Shradha has been writing poems for years now, mostly in English.
“I’m stimulated by a lot of things everyday, and I think what inspires each of us is very personal,” she expresses. “We could walk the same street but get different impressions.”
In fact, the title of the exhibition comes from one of her poems. What the title means or is supposed to mean can be interpreted in many ways, and they leave that up to the viewers. “It’s very open-ended,” Shradha puts in.
Besides the exhibition, the duo is also working on a book to be launched on the same day. The 28-page book is titled ‘Post – Adventures of Wicked Children.’ In the editorial, Shradha states, “Lines are drawn everywhere for us…This new space called Post, a self-obsessed paradigm of many personalities, is where the lines collapse.”
Designed by Subesh, it features poems, photographs and illustrations by the two, along with some Nepali poems written by their friends. These contributed poems, interestingly, are all in Nepali, and be warned that they are Rated ‘R,’ given their expletive content.
An independent publication, Post will come four times a year and is currently priced at Rs 1,100 each. A website is in the planning for future interested contributors.
Wants are sexier than needs will be a show not to miss and it will definitely receive mixed reactions. Nudity and expletives are parts of this show and to many, the works will come as visually jarring or even downright repulsive.
While they bring something new to the local arts scene, you will either like their works or you won’t. But to find out, you will have to go.
Wants are sexier than needs opens at Nepal Art Council, Baber Mahal, Kathmandu, on January 20, 2012, 5 pm. The show will remain open until January 25.
Burathoki is the contributing Arts Editor for The Week.
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