KATHMANDU
Gallery Mcube, Chakupat is featuring the exchange exhibition of video art installations with Nepal and Taiwan entitled "Metaphors about Islands" curated by Curator Sandy Hsiu-chih Lo with the participating artists Kuo Chin-Yun, LinYan-Xiang, Liang Ting-Yu from Taiwan and Ashmina Ranjit, Manish Lal Shrestha from Nepal.
The exhibition revolves around the idea of isolation and what isolation means to each artist with their own interpretation rather than the meaning of the word in a dictionary. A video installation is a form of a poem in pictures and for those who do not have the patience to think about what’s going on in the artist’s mind through video, the exhibition might simply be moving images projected on the wall. But if you stay focused, then the meaning and the depth that the artist deals with are quite interesting.
Artistic expression of existentialism on display
In Ashmina’s video on a performance titled 'Same River- but the Water' made in 2016, she embarked on a 12 kilometers journey from the oldest settlements of Kathmandu Valley to the thriving cultural metropolis of Kathmandu.
Crossing paths with the Bagmati and Bishnumati; two rivers that have given shape to the civilization of Kathmandu Valley, the passage she took is an important section of the Indo-China trade route that goes through Kathmandu. It was the first time she would return to her childhood place. She walked in reverse, each step returning her; to her personal history and to the history of her land.
Then, in Manish’s ‘The Cup’, he has used teacup as a metaphorical representation of the Kathmandu Valley and he shared, “ I feel the valley is like an island just surrounded by the waves of high mountains instead of the sea. The valley became the junction of the economic, political, and cultural hubs of the country. Diverse communities dwell in the valley with cross-cultural relationships. Since earlier era, many changes happened in our socio-culture due to natural disaster, political differences and also through ritualistic behaviors.”
Likewise, Liang Ting Yu's 'Earthquake Disaster, Shooting and Dead Body', he explored disaster as Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Nepal has similar geological conditions and are located at the boundaries between tectonic plates and the fault zones, his video installation is a narrative of the production chains of death photography and the necrophilia.
The exhibition that began on November 12 concludes on November 28.
