Australian Ambassador to Nepal, Peter Budd launched the book ‘Silence No Longer: Artivism of Ashmina’ in an event organized at Hotel Shanker, Lazimpat on Tuesday. The book was published with the support from the Australian Embassy which highlights the contribution of artist Ashmina Ranjit to linking arts and activism in Nepal. 

Ambassador Budd congratulated Ashmina for documenting her hard work. He said, “The Australian Embassy and the Australia Awards alumni family are pleased to be a part of this achievement and celebration.”

Ashmina, an Australia Awards alumna and an active member of WiLN–Nepal, pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Tasmania. She also holds Master of Fine Arts from Colombia University. Her works as an activist focus on the issues of female sexuality, taboos and oppression and the book depicts the same. 

Vajra Books has published the book. “This book is a documentation of some of my works. This book depicts the activities happening in   Nepali art industry from the last 30 years. I have not written any article in the book to avoid bias and tried not to create propaganda. Nevertheless, anthropologists, art historians, sociologists and art critics have written articles along with commentaries on my work.” She expressed.

Moderated by Dr Amina Singh, a fellow Australia Awards alumna, the book-launch was followed by a poem recitation and a panel discussion that comprised of Sujan Chitrakar, Associate Professor at Kathmandu University, Gunjan Dixit, Co-founder of Katha Ghera and Promina Shrestha, book illustrator and arts researcher. Chitrakar talked about how the book can be helpful in knowing the development of the art outfit. Likewise, Dixit stated the importance of Ashmina’s work through feminine aspect and Shrestha addressed that book being useful from a researcher’s perspective.