On June 25, I was thrilled to find the entire first floor of the Nepal Art Council with arts and crafts done by children – collages from scraps of clothes, crazy crayon scribbling, awesome cardboard models, and adorable books.[break]
If all the kids were to have access to such a Neighborhood Arts Centre, it would be truly splendid.
I wished I were in a kid at Sharareh Bajracharya’s Centre.
“Mela – Celebrating a Neighborhood Arts Centre” exhibited artworks made by children at the Centre, which Sharareh started in February 2011.
A studio space that opens to children in the mornings and evenings, the Centre is located in Yakta Baha, Kathmandu.
The myriad activities, which include fine arts, dancing and singing, she has done with the kids are wonderful. Moreover, it was the respect, care and creativity with which Sharareh presented the children’s creations that left me with much appreciation for her project. I believe that she will continue to make a difference.
Nepal Art Council also had exhibitions by fellow graduating seniors Arjun Khatri (Go Gopal Go), Bhagwati Acharya (Forgotten Images), Sharada Vaidya (modulated habitation) and Bal Krishna Banmala (aaju: about wishes), all of whom focused on painting.
Over at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Man Bahadur Harijan (Manish) also had his set of final paintings titled “Pl.”
A key observation in these paintings, regardless of the artists and differences in their subject matters, was the similarity in their compositions and their single tone flat background colors.
Banmala, depicting his ambiguity between his family’s traditional dance practices and his individual freedom, made portraits of a masked dancer riding a motorcycle, playing football and sitting atop a bus – a reference to the famed movie “Into the Wild.”
A single color (blue or green or yellow) fills the background of the masked dancer, not too different from Manish’s triptych portraits of working class people that have flat somber backgrounds, and Sharada’s paintings of the city’s growing commercial tall buildings (I would call them portraits of buildings) in “modulated habitation,” Sharada’s paintings had orange, red, blue and green backgrounds.
The paintings have their own individual explorations and subjects. However, it’s difficult to not make a comparison when the exhibitions are all held consecutively, and the artists come from the same graduating batch. When I asked some of visitors of this occurrence, I got vague answers like “You should ask the faculty,” or “You should ask the artist” and “khai!?”
I haven’t found the answer. But it’s a question that rising seniors of KUart need to ask themselves now, more than anyone else. More than whether the backgrounds work in the paintings or not, it’s a question of whether the same subject could’ve been explored differently.
In addition, the paintings in Bhagwati’s “Forgotten Images” of street children were not too distant in style from Sujan Chitrakar’s recent exhibition, “Let’s Talk About ART Baby” and Laxman Karmacharya’s “Fantasized Idea.”
Arjun’s portraits of childish Gopal, on the other hand, were an endearing set of paintings, even though they also had monotone patterns in the background.
The artist’s portrayal of Gopal in the most mundane of expressions, from scratching his belly to yawning, was what made it lovable, funny and thought provoking. Who is this Gopal, and why is he the center of this series?
Working out of the box and with boxes was Aditya Aryal in “Boxes of Night.” Lots of neon and black lights, the installation “Hustle Bustle” symbolized the artist’s interpretation of the city – a heap of cardboard boxes stacked to create a pile that looked like it would topple over any minute.
It was disorganized, mysterious, precarious, and unpredictable, with its uneven surfaces, like the city. The words NEED, WANT, LOVE and HATE were written on the four sides of the heap – representing the mixed emotions of Kathmandu’s youth towards the city.
A commentary on the youth culture, the installation was aptly presented at Picasso Artiste de la Cuisine, one of the many restaurants in the Jhamsikhel hub of growing night life.
The poster for Aditya’s project was designed by Shraddha Shrestha, also a 4th year BFA student of KUart, as a part of her final project under Graphic Communication.
She presented her works along with nine other students at the Nepal Art Council on July 8. The poster had already caught my eye before, but knowing that she had also designed the recent PechaKucha Kathmandu and BFA Integrated Project 2011 posters, they came as nice surprises as well.
Like Kreeti Shakya of Kazi Studios had pointed out at the session, Shraddha showed variety and experimentation in different mediums in her designs.
Other favorites of mine were Priti Sherchan’s book “Soul Intimate” and Rabindra Man Kapali’s “Chetana” even though it was a little gory. Chetana focused on road safety and traffic awareness for the new six-lane highway to Bhaktapur.
It would’ve been better if “Chetana” had been written in Nepali on the logo, given that the targeted audience would be the general Nepali public.
While the designs were interesting, the designers could’ve used a little help and preparation in their presentation skills if they want to land a job in the market.
Potential employees from advertising and design agencies had also been invited to the event. Similarly, a lot of editing and guidance should be given to future students in the textual content of their designs.
A visually innovative and attractive poster combined with grammatically incorrect and inappropriate slogans risk ending up on the unappealing side.
The writer is contributing art editor at Republica.
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