KATHMANDU
There are incidents in our society where a married woman's position in a family is nothing but synonymous to a cow. The family is feeding her so; she has to do whatever they ask her to do. And we are also very accustomed with the social norms that till now, we do not question why only women have to leave their birth place after marriage. Meanwhile, if a woman wants her husband also leave the house, then the woman is blamed as the home wrecker.
However, there are some women who have proved their worth and even happy to be able to balance work and life, simultaneously living in a joint family even after marriage. One such example is artist Sushila Singh whose third solo exhibition is running at the Le Sherpa, Lazimpat since November 8.
The exhibition 'Udaan: Beyond Boundaries' reflects her own self, where she is being out from the boundary and soaring high in her career. To depict her freedom, she used pagoda styled temple in surrealistic form as her major motif, in her artworks—pen & ink drawings, ceramic paintings, ceramic vase, ceramic cups and more.
About her endeavor, she shares, "Your story is what you have and what you will always have. It is something to own. I myself being a woman, I have projected the mixture of what I feel and what I have been taught in the form of self love.”
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In one of her ceramic painting ‘Udan’, using ceramic stain (ink) on slab, a pagoda styled temple is seen as if it is moving, and the figure looks like a dancing human when looked at it up close. There is vibrancy in all her paintings.
In this exhibition, she has explored herself soaring high, though the societal norms believe, a married woman who is also a mother of two children is, fixated, proving them wrong. Meanwhile, Sushila who believes “Art is not who you are, it’s what you carry” has depicted what she believes in. Her, being from a Newa community, has emphasized the use of color orange and black, which are considered auspicious in Newa culture. Moreover, she tried to explore the positive side of these symbolic colors.
She added, “Black dot or line on forehead is believed to protect you and color orange portrays happiness or celebration. Thus, I used these colors. I am from Kathmandu valley which is surrounded by temples and shrines, which have heavily influenced me.”
Sushila has been in the art field for 14 years now and it has just been three years she has tried her hands on ceramic work. And there are only few artists who work in this medium. When asked the reason for her to work in this medium, she shared, “I am always fascinated by ceramic. Ever since I was a teenager, I started to buy sets of ceramic tea cup in different sizes. And I have been scolded for buying too many of them. However, when I think about it now, I feel that working with ceramic is my destiny.”
The exhibition continues till November 28.
