Photo Courtesy: Taragaon Museum
There are things that we care and there are things we don't. Moreover, for creative people, they may not know what might strike them and get inspired, that can give them a definite direction in their artistic endeavor.
Something as simple as a banyan tree can give inspiration to an artist. American Visual Artist Maureen Drdak, while in Nepal as a Fulbright research fellow in 2011, she passed by an ancient and stately banyan tree nearby Department of Immigration office, Kalikasthan. She noticed that this tree was choked by encroaching development and deprived of room to grow naturally. Its aerial roots had been severely cropped to prevent their descent, resulting in masses of hanging gravid bundles. Drdak experienced these striking shapes as powerful yet poignant metaphors for development’s relentless strangulation of natural forces, she was inspired to explore their forms.
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And in the exhibition ‘Weeping Banyan’ presented by Taragaon Museum and Siddhartha Art Gallery, features an intimate exhibition of 10 small exquisitely rendered works; each a visual meditation on environmental degradation by Drdak. And the photographs of the banyan tree that inspired her is also displayed in the exhibition.
The exhibition kicked off on Friday at Taragaon Museum, Bouddha. Seven of her works employ precious lapis lazuli and palladium — evocative of water — which delicately flows through ethereal graphite drawings.
The remaining three works feature her unique synthesis of copper repoussé metalwork integrated with painting, a material synthesis pioneered through her study with Newar Master Rabindra Shakya of Okhubahal, Patan.
The exhibition featuring artworks having a beautiful rhythmic combination of hues like blue, white, grey and black that replicates the woes of nature continues till Sunday.
