Listen to them sing

Meena felt that “junk sang of its lost glory” to her and this was thus a way of giving back them their glory. And indeed, the artist has given a new life to discarded objects, and that too a pristine one, inside the walls of a gallery – quite the opposite of a junkyard.

With their purpose and meanings transformed, these materials as sculptures now have a new collective identity as lyrics that sing to the viewers.[break]

At a family gathering, prior to the festival, Meena Kayastha showed her sculptures to family members and relatives who had little or no art background. Although her father Raj Kumar Maharjan is a traditional Newar artist, he stopped practicing years ago.

“They were shocked,” Meena describes their reactions upon seeing that her works had been sculpted out of objects that came from a pile of otherwise discarded materials. “My family was surprised to see that one could create something out of waste,” she relates and continues, “To be able to show just that is the biggest satisfaction for me.”

Pans, gas stove and bicycle parts, beads, chains, old trumpets, human teeth and more – all put into creating 24 sculptures that Meena calls “Lyrics from the Junkyard.” Currently showing at Siddhartha Art Gallery, it is the 28-year-old’s first solo exhibition.

Meena completed her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Kathmandu University Center for Art & Design in 2007. She joined KUart with her mind set on painting. “But I realized that I wasn’t really into it,” she laughs about being messy and unclean.

But isn’t working with clay messy too? “Sculpture is labor-intensive but working in clay excited me and I enjoyed creating rustic forms,” Meena discloses her enthusiasm for molding clay and working with stones.

Meena’s exploration with junk and mentorship with sculptor Gopal Kalapremi started two years back. At the opening of the exhibition on Friday, August 19, Kalapremi expressed that he had never thought Meena would last because of her fashionable appearance and long nails.

Well, luckily it was a lifelong passion to be that was driving her and not a temporary fascination.

All the sculptures at the exhibition are anthropomorphic, bearing partial or full human resemblance. What was created, used, taken apart and disposed by people, Meena brings them back together to create what look like people all over again.

Lyrics of Hope, built out of chains, bike disc, papier-mâché, ceramic dust and other objects, is clearly a figure with hands, feet and a somewhat robotic yet smiling face. In Lyrics of the Soul, a trumpet gracefully juts out of the mouth of a face, which in turn emerges from a black cylindrical body.

Next to it is one of the most complicated pieces titled Lyrics of the Street. With curly wires for hair and exaggerated facial features, six thin figures come in a group to play music. In Lyrics of Life, faces have been molded onto pans.

What was the choice behind giving these junk materials human features when it was people who discarded them in the first place? Perhaps a reminder to people? Any environmental messages there? A reflection?

“No, there aren’t any environmental messages,” clarifies the artist and adds, “The sculptures took shape in their armatures, and when I made one that looked like a person, I decided to continue the style in the series. My works are open to personal interpretations too.”

Meena felt that “junk sang of its lost glory” to her and this was thus a way of giving back them their glory. And indeed, the artist has given a new life to discarded objects, and that too a pristine one, inside the walls of a gallery – quite the opposite of a junkyard.

With their purpose and meanings transformed, these materials as sculptures now have a new collective identity as lyrics that sing to the viewers.

In another context, Meena juxtaposes the life of junk to her own youth, which too will fade away. “This body of works is about capturing youth in time and the feeling of a new life,” she puts in.

Lyrics of the Queen is a self-portrait. Unlike the rest which have been painted over with earth brown tones, Meena has left the gray papier-mâché as it is.

The marble eyes glisten on the façade of the sculpture where the Queen is dressed in a gown. On the opposite side, the Queen is nude. “The sculpture is a play on the idea of humans being born nude and choosing to clothe themselves only later,” the sculptor says.

Many of the sculptures either have prominent bicycle parts or musical instruments, and on the overall, there isn’t a big variety of junk materials in their compositions. In some, they’ve been totally overlapped by ceramic powder and papier-mâché.

“I couldn’t take everything I saw and picked items that spoke to me and those that I thought would be relevant to my work,” Meena states, adding that later on she did have difficulties in finding the right materials.

What about displaying her sculptures out in the open and letting them once again deteriorate in nature?

“Well, although the sculptures are rain- and fireproof, I haven’t thought of exhibiting them outdoors, but I would like to do a road installation in the future,” Meena reveals. “Something big and that hangs between land and sky,” she hints at her vision.

But for now, don’t miss this exhibition.

Lyrics from the Junkyard will remain open at the Siddhartha Art Gallery in Baber Mahal Revisited until September 9.

(Kanchan G Burathoki is a contributing Art editor for The Week)