Unlike any typical art exhibition, some young artists gathered on May 28 to adorn the walls outside Hotel Himalaya in Kupondole, Lalitpur.[break]
The street art event was jointly organized by Artudio and Image School, a facebook based art and photography promoting platform.
Both Artudio and Image School have been regularly organizing photography classes, special art camps, art and photography workshops, art and photography awareness programs, bi-monthly photo challenges and open art and photography meets in public space.
The mural exhibition under the theme “We make the nation” had small and large images complementing one main painting at the centre.
The images of flowers, faces, messages, hand imprints and poems painted using distempers seemed to extend positive vibes.
“May 28 was supposed to be a historical and constructive day for us with the declaration of the constitution but failing that all we can see now is protests and obstruction.
Our responsibility, however, is not to protest but do something about it. So rather than resorting to the blame game, we young artists came together to spread positive and constructive messages through art and creativity,” said Kailash K Shrestha, a visual artist and the initiator of the event.
He also pointed out that people make demands but forget their responsibilities. “Protesting, undoubtedly, is not our responsibility,” he said, “Everyone should contribute from whichever field they are. If we come together with determination, sincerity and a sense of responsibility, we can make the nation.”
Talking about how he got the idea for this initiative he said it was always so frustrating to see the walls in the capital covered with movie posters, political slogans and unnecessary pamphlets. “The artist in me saw the walls as a platform to work on and to make them aesthetic and visually appealing.
As it was for a good cause, we had no problems in getting permission from the Hotel Himalaya,” he said.
Kailash also said that the initial plan was to paint the walls around Ratnapark and involve interested school children to see their expressions. Though the plan had to be changed, he hopes to do that in the future.
Many artists came together to show their creativity on the same platform. Sanjeet Maharjan, whose forte is semi-realistic paintings, said that art is an easy medium to spread messages as it can be easily grasped by the common people and even by those who are illiterate.
“As artists we took a different approach for protest: conveying positive messages through art,” he said.
An art enthusiast and a fine arts student at Kathmandu University (KU), Shreejana Shakya, who was participating in an event like this for the first time, said such events set trends and inspire others to do the same.
“The future of our country is in the hands of youngsters but the ongoing strikes and political upheavals leave negative impact on them. We wanted to do something constructive through creativity in art and photography,” said Sumeet Shakya, co-founder of Image School.
Sushma Shakya, teacher of History of Arts at Kathmandu University (KU) thinks that youngsters are full of innovative ideas and they need an outlet to express themselves.
“More young people need to get involved in a cause like this to spread optimism and help the country get out of the current chaotic situation,” she said.
“This is just the beginning for us and we hope to continue painting walls creatively in the future as well,” added Kailash.
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