This Country is Yours

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

Kathmandu’s Road Expansion Project, Bansbari, 2012

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

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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