 |
Cave, Bāghdwār, 2012
 |
Headwaters of Bagmati
River, Bāghdwār, 2012
 |
Sabita Poudel’s Bible,
Banshighat, one of fourteen squatter settlements along the banks of Bagmati River, 2012
 |
Statue of Juddha Shamsher,
National Museum of Nepal, 2012
 |
Hat Vendor, near Ratna Park, 2012
 |
| Ang Kazi Sherpa, General Secretary, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, 2012 |
 |
RamSahay Prasad Yadav, General Secretary, Madeshi People’s Rights Forum,
2012
|
 |
Sarita Pariyar, Samata Foundation, a policy research and
advocacy think tank for Dalits (untouchable groups), 2012
 |
Friday Prayers, Jame Mosque, 2012
 |
| Bhakti Shah, Human Rights Officer, Blue Diamond Society, organization advocating
LGBTI rights, 2012 |
Sapana Malla Pradhan,
President, Forum for Women, Law and Development, 2012
 |
International Convention
Centre, where Constituent Assembly met for four years and failed on its mandate to write Nepal's constitution, 2012
 |
Migrant worker Surya Bahadur Thapa Magar
day before leaving for Saudi Arabia, 2012
 |
Museum Attendants Ambika Dhungana and Anju Luitel, National
Museum of Nepal, 2012
|
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Kathmandu’s Road Expansion Project, Bansbari,
2012
|
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| CK Lal, Columnist and Commentator, 2012 |
 |
|
Krishna
Bhattachan, Professor, Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Tribhuvan University, 2012
|
 |
| Bagmati River, Gokarna, 2012 |
Artist
Statement: This Country is Yours
Background:
Nepal
is going through dramatic transformation. After 239 years, monarchical rule has
come to an end. The country witnessed a decade-long Maoist rebellion that
resulted in over 16,000 deaths and displaced over 100,000. Various social and
political movements, and discourses of equality and justice have heightened.
Last May, the elected Constituent Assembly was dissolved after it failed to
deliver its mandate of writing Nepal’s constitution after four years of deliberation.
Currently, there is contestation on a federal model between forces seeking
change and the status quo.
The
Project:
This Country
is Yours,
started in 2012 is a long-term body of work, and is inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans. The work focuses on Kathmandu
and looks at the six social and political movements of Nepal which include:
women, Adibasi Janajati (indigenous nationalities), Dalit (untouchable groups),
Madeshi (minority groups from southern plains adjoining India), the Lesbian Gay
Bisexual Transgender Intersex community and religious minorities. Besides the
six movements, I am also photographing on the streets, visiting newly built
housing developments, offices of political parties and other places that
reflect the social and political vernacular of Nepal. As Frank, I am weaving
together pictures of quite disparate and complicated, but intertwined ideas. I
am using Bagmati River, which meanders through Kathmandu to thread together the
diverse set of images of landscapes, portraits and interiors. In This Country is Yours, I am interested
in encapsulating the essence of the social and political transformation of
Nepal.
As an artist, I am interested in the
intersection of the personal and the political. While my work looks at the
social and political transformation of Nepal, it is also a reflection of my own
transnational experience between North America and Nepal. The work introspectively
looks at the issues of nationalism, transnationalism and the sense of occupying
multiple places concurrently. This Country
is Yours is about political struggle, imminent liberation
and transformation.
Note: My website will be updated in April 2013
