culture

Epitome of creativity

Kathmandu: Seven headed magnificent Naga sculptured separately on six feet long wood panel, titled ‘Flying Nagas 2 (Diptych)’can capture anyone’s attention. You will observe that this art work shows the current degrading condition of the environment. Moreover, interesting use of copper, plastics bags and mineral particles are evident.

This piece is just one part of majestic sculptures and paintings called ‘The Prakriti Project: Eternal vision contemporary. Forms’ is being exhibited at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited, from February 9.

The exhibition is a joint venture of two artists-Rabindra Shakya, master of Newari Repousse , his student American artist Maureen Drdak, their work as individual artists and the interface of their traditions are showcased. In the ground floor of the gallery, Shakya’s grand and majestic sculptures using copper reposes are displayed while on the first floor Drdak’s Prakriti project is hung.

Prakriti project represents the first sunthesis of contemporary painting and metal art of reposes, a technique where sheet metal is hammered from both sides to produce a three-dimensional bas-relief (a sculpture technique).

The works on exhibition are the result of Drdak’s creative thesis where she has used traditional Newari reposes technique to create contemporary expresforms, mixing them within the paint surface.

About the meeting and working with Drdak, Shakya shares, “Two years back she visited to our workshop and learned the traditional Newari reposes techniques and now her works are displayed where her master piece was completed at our workshop.”

Elaborating further about her work, she explains, “The subject of these works is Naga-the protector serpent deity of Nepal which is associated with an environmental health. I symbolically tried to give the message on environmental degradation and global warming, a particularly acute problem of the world.” ”Naga represents water” she says making all the water bodies in Nepal synonymous to Naga. However, it is in a dire situation, thus she chose Naga for her project.

In the exhibition, Shakya’s sculptures titled Swoyambhu stupa, Hey Bajra Mandala, Dragan, colossal Buddha Head and more could be seen. Shakya has been practicing this form of art since his childhood.

According to Shakya his favorite from the collection is colossal Buddha Head where he explains, “As the art piece is huge, one needs to be very cautions while working on the copper sheet especially when working on features of the face. And like in other work, it cannot be divided in separate pieces. This makes it time consuming to complete.” No wonder all the hard work and intricate details has taken a form of priceless art.

Noh performance in town   

Kathmandu: When three of the audiences were invited on the stage and were asked to put on the Noh mask, Kailash Hall of The Shanker Hotel, Lazimpat was filled with laughter. These traditional Japanese masks that expressed different human emotions made the audience look funny.

It was one of the interesting moments at Noh performance, a form of Japanese classical musical drama per by Japanese group Tsurukameza: Experience Japanese Culture on February 11. Organized by the Embassy of Japan, the event aimed at the promotion of Japan, its traditional and contemporary cultures in Nepal.

In the event, Kunio Takahashi, Ambassador of Japan, informed, “Noh is one of a major forms of Japanese classical musical drama started at the middle of the 14^th century which is passed down from generation to generation retaining its basic form even today.”

Before the performance, the audiences were informed on various aspects of Noh performance, Japan theatres and their architecture, costume, masks etc through a presentation.

After the presentation, nine artistes from Tsurukameza troupe displayed a lively performance. They danced in a slow action with subtle movement of hands and leg. Music produced by traditional Japanese instruments accompanied the dance.

One of the Noh performers, Tanaka Shigeyasu shared, “I am so happy to get good response from Nepal and we had fun performing here.” All the performers at the event were in their 60s.” This is our second phase of life and to spend our life in a meaningful way we are into Noh performance. Also we are helping to preserve and promote our traditional culture,” another performer Katsu Masa Shige informed.

The photographs of people from the Japan who had survived the disastrous Tsunami of 2011 were also exhibited in the event.

About the reason for organizing the event, Takahashi shared, “Today’s event is so promote the understanding of Japan from both the traditional and modern aspect and also to strengthen the cultural ties between the people of Nepal and Japan. It ultimately helps expansion of every-growing friendly and cooperative relations between us.”