Tag: Issue 3

Somewhere in the eastern region of Nepal is a hillside strewn with graves of local ancestry. Despite being once revered as a sacred space of worship, many of the graves on Thumki Hill have been recently disturbed by farming activities. But at the start of the year, a set of architects came to the village and now, six months later, came up with a building that not only reflects the sacred nature of the hilltop, but also the potential of architecture in art, ecology and spiritual portrayals.

‘Modern architecture is in search of mythology,’ shares Travis Price, the founder of Spirit of Place, the organization that built the monumental piece at Thumki Hill. In partnership with the Culture and Sacred Spaces graduate program at the Catholic University of America, every semester the group works on a construction that is built in a different cultural setting with the involvement of local people. The main theme of the construction is to use the culture, beliefs and understandings of belonging into an architectural design that essentially encapsulates the ‘spirit of place’.

Back in January Travis, along with Program Director Kathleen Lane, spent time in Namje Thumki talking with and learning from the Sharman teachers. The experience and information gained was then relayed to the graduate architecture students back in America who individually processed, analysed and played with the ideas before sharing them together as a group. Students tried to come up with what they felt would be appropriate portraits of the beliefs and ideas of the place. ‘Many times ideas overlap each other or have characters in common.  We then merge together all these ideas, work some more on it and come up with a final outcome,’ says Travis. At the beginning of June, at the end of the semester, the students came to the village and, in collaboration with the villagers, spent nine days building what can now be called not just an architectural landmark, but also a memorial to those before us.

Although an architect by profession, and one with more than common accomplishments, Travis is also a philosopher and an environmentalist. Unlike many architects of the day, he seeks the worth of his creations in the messages they portray.  Instead of only attempting to modernise, he infuses the modern with traditional ideas. Reflecting on the influence of ecology Travis says ‘looking at natural patterns is enough to drive and inspire. The first step is to see nature from a different perspective. This brings geometry and natural shapes together.’Stone blocks sourced locally were the chief construction material for the monument at Thumki Hill.

Still, ‘architecture needs ecological balance but it also needs a story,’ explains Travis. ‘As architects we have to find a metaphor to shape the space.’   Questions that architects should be thinking about pertain to culture, antiquity, and ancestry and how to interpret these through a modern lens. ‘Even as deconstructionists,’ he continues, ‘if you can embrace change and embrace the environment, you can create a new modernism.’  And the whole effort behind Spirit of Place is to preserve aspects of culture.  After all, ‘the most important thing is storytelling and memory being eradicated. It is almost as scary as the loss of the ecosphere.’

The Monument

The Spirit of Place monument at Thumki Hill captures how the villages evoke their ancestors. The seven metre squared landmark comprises of eighteen walls for the eighteen students that were part of the team. Each of the walls is made of stones which look like tombstones standing towards the sky. The corridors lead to a centerpiece which is a rectangular hole, representative of a grave, dug deep into the earth and topped with glass. People ‘approach it with a sense of mystery and walk down each passage way to a different infinity,’ Travis reflects.  Many villagers experiencing the monument for the first time ‘look in and then look up at the sky’ as if remembering their ancestors. The project has local ownership owing to their involvement at each of the stages. The ultimate monument is a product of collective action and collective decisions.

The community is mostly a Magar locality. The religious heads, Sharmans, are immensely trusted and consulted. The team ‘held a series of meetings with the Sharmans to help understand the sacred traditions and rituals of the Magar people.’ And just as the fusion between modernism and traditionalism, there is collaboration between the locals and the foreigners. The transfer of skills is neither top to down, nor east to west. With many of the architecture students inexperienced in construction the local stone masons’ demonstrated all steps from how to make and pour concrete, to placing the stones and building a wall. The relationship with the community livens itself beyond that of the 9 day project. Other ideas were shared and stories exchanged about insulation and solar heating.

 

Kathmandu: The urban problem

For an emerging city Kathmandu is still packed with the sacred, yet the architecture does not often reflect the culture. The growth is great and necessary but it creates new headaches. The public space needs drastic attention.  The identity of the residents needs to be reflected by the surrounding environment. Architects, as represents of the people, should look at reclaiming the public space, roads and places. Unplanned urbanization is beyond control.  ‘People need to take a rough stand,’ Travis urges at a conference to architecture students in Kathmandu. ‘The city will look and function better if we can redesign the streets and cityscape and slowly reroute it.’

One of the main problems for Nepalese architects is to infuse the modern with the ancient components that make Kathmandu. In a city where high-rise buildings are competing with temples and structures from the last centuries and beyond, it is necessary to keep ones eye on the depth of the history. The emerging architecture is poisoning the old. When awful new buildings surround the old without any consideration, it is evident that the spirit of the old is lost. This means architects will have to take up responsibility and be accountable for the cities they create- a daunting but otherwise inspiring task. After all, they will not just be imitating the past but, from now, looking to innovate the future.

The innovation needed in the futuristic beautification of Kathmandu is in many ways inspirable from the construction at Thumki Hill. The knowledge gained from the locals and their culture was fused into the design. This process, where the user inputs ideas and collaborates from the outset, means the monument will be far more immersed in the villagers. The idea of a shrine like place for respecting the ancestors came much more in harmony to the villagers than something they had no say over. Such should be the case with architecture. Architecture is not a competition; it is a conflux of thought. And the thoughts must be justifiably derived from what the user and designer both have to say.

Spirit of Place- Spirit of Design is a one of a kind institute that brings together a symbiotic mixture of humanities and architecture. The program has shown a side of design and construction not commonly seen: the non-commercial one. Shaped very much like the architecture of the ecosphere movement from the 1970s, what the institute hopes to teach is that as much as the ecosphere needs to be conserved, the ethno-sphere also needs to be preserved. And, as the brain behind all major constructions, architects have a pivotal role to play in this preservation process.

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It looks like street art has taken Kathmandu by storm. We interviewed Anya Vaverko, an artist and a witness to this growing culture, about how she sees, feels and participates in street art. Anya, who is also a photographer, a stencil artist and the co-founder of Sattya Media Arts Collective, talks about her line of street art and its place in Kathmandu.

We arrived at her office come creative workspace in Lalitpur where she was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her dog Kanchi. Born in Ukraine and brought up in the US, Anya has adopted Kathmandu as her home and is fluent in Nepali as could be seen on her sticker stencil that read ‘Dal bhat nai mitho!’

 

How did your journey in the street art field begin?
I have been doing photography and I majored in photojournalism from the University of Texas. When I saw the street art in Kathmandu I thought ‘so many people are doing it, so why not I?’ I really wanted to learn this form of art but I had no idea where I could learn it. So I posted something like that on Facebook and met a mutual friend who was into street art. Stencils are just cutouts from pictures and photographs that you spray on to achieve an image. I have been stenciling for about a year now.

Before that you were into photography then?
I still am! Stenciling is just something I do- it is not my career or anything, it is just something I use to express ideas. For example, when I was younger I used to write poems and stuff. When I want to say something, I just put it up as a Facebook status. Then I stopped writing poetry and nobody really cares about Facebook statuses. Sometimes when I feel mad about something and I have to express it in some way or the other, I put my energy into the artwork. Sometimes I really like a photograph and I turn it into a stencil and think of a message to put with it.

So when did you actually start doing street art?
Well, last month I had some free time so I got together with a friend and practiced some stencils. I didn’t really spray on a wall when in the US because I was still learning. My friend had a lot of art space where we prepared a bunch of stencils.

Does it take a long time?
It doesn’t take a lot of time. You just take a picture, cut it out, spray over it. Usually it takes one or two days. My most intricate stencil took around two days with me spending every bit of my free time cutting it out. But you still need the right energy and the right vibe to do it the proper way.

How different is it from other forms of art?
The thing about stenciling is- anybody can do it. You can recreate the same image over and over again. Other forms of art cannot be reproduced the same way- you’d need to copy it precisely and draw over it’¦ with stencils, you just cut it out and spray over it. It is a simple thing and a lot of people can do it.

What kinds of ethics are attached to this form of art?
With street art, I see to it that I am not doing it on someone’s front door or on a property. In Kathmandu there are a lot of spaces that are nobody’s property.  It should not be harming someone in anyway and should usually have a purpose. If a company is doing a really terrible thing, for example, and you want to draw on their wall as an act of protest, then that might be a pretty good reason. Otherwise, if you are just doing artwork to make the place look nicer then why do it where it harms someone?

What do you have to say about the ethics of the content of the street art?
The guy whom I learnt stenciling with, well, he is not the innocent type and he is some kind of activist too but he is used to tell me- there is so much negativity around’¦ people just come and scribble obscenities all over the walls which has no point at all.

Banksy makes very strong statements without ever using offensive language-half the time he doesn’t even write anything.  He is just clever the way he does it. What I am saying is, you don’t have to censor yourself and put up pictures of flowers and bunnies. Express yourself but be clever about it. Not everything has to be a negative statement and not everything has to be a positive statement- it can just reflect your mood.

How have people been responding to your art?
Most of the time, people don’t even know that it was me who did the art work. Some that I did on a framed glass and hung around here gathered response like ‘Oh hey, you made that? I used to see it whenever I passed this way and it always made me laugh.’ There have been good responses so far.

What is the role of your organization- Sattya Media Arts Collective?
My organization is not directly related to this art but Sattya is basically a research center for filmmakers, photographers and media people. Sometimes we just show movies and documentaries and sometimes we hold workshops for things like creative writing and photography. Everybody is welcome here. There were people who wanted to learn stenciling and Sattya could be a platform for it because it is where we share and learn things. It is kind of a creative space for people.

How long have you been in Nepal?
Eight years-coming and going. I was nineteen when I first came here.

What kind of changes in the scenario of street art have you seen here?
People have begun taking up street art these days- there is this one near the Himalaya hotel which has replaced the political slogans. First, aesthetically it looks better and second, it drew people together to do something good.

Do you think it will make a difference-even the slightest, in these times of political disorder?
I don’t think it will shake up the leaders or something because I don’t really know WHAT it takes to shake them. Like I said, it is a means of expressing and I don’t think it will make a lot of difference whatsoever.

 What, related to art, bothers you the most in Nepal?

Advertising is getting way out of hand here. I mean, in the west it is worse but Nepal is quickly getting there. You cannot escape them’¦companies are buying space and it is crazy! I don’t see how the space belongs to them more than anyone of us. Somehow their slogans are considered more ‘legal’ and ‘harmless’ than a piece of art put up on a wall just because they paid money to do it.

What difference do you see personally between the convention of street art in the west and here?
I don’t really know because, like I said, I never did art back in the US. One thing- in the US, street art can be serious crime which I really disagree with. That is what I like about Nepal. There are walls that nobody really owns. I just wish they were not so commercial.

In the West, there are people who appreciate street art’¦ but sometimes they tend to look down upon you. In Nepal, people are curious and do appreciate it. My neighbour, a little kid, thinks it is utterly cool (laughs). It is interesting how street art is growing in Nepal. Just a year ago there were hardly any and today everybody is doing or talking street art.  Before people mainly drew anarchy symbols, but now murals and art itself is cropping up. The city is starting to look better.

Anything for people who want to begin stenciling?
I would encourage it because it is kind of empowering. All your life, you walk around a city that you didn’t help design or leave a mark on. However, don’t do anything random. Let it at least have some meaning. Express yourself but don’t offend unnecessarily.

 

An unknown character that metamorphosed street art forever

Street art is an underground life, a common heart-beat of masses waiting to exploit their passion and portray their ingenious thoughts through   multidimensional artistic ways ‘graffiti, stencil art, sticker art, wheat-pasting, street posters and video projection to name a few. For many, it is the need to yell their distinct opinions and fight to unlock the latches that have chained a morally bound society around them.  For some, it is the emptiness of those blank walls that lures them to creating a soul or a voice to fill the void. While for few, street art is a public gallery, for others, it is just the passion that pushes artists to fill their empty life. For Banksy, it’s all!

Banksy is, however, a pseudo-name of the renowned British street artist who has not only changed the course of street art, but also created a movement for the public to think about. In this self-promoting world of art, Banksy has made his own unique name by remaining elusive. No one really knows where and when his next work will appear, or even where and when Banksy emerged. But what is known is that he has transmogrified the streets of London to his own canvas and changed the appearance of many streets around the world.

Banksy began his life as a graffiti artist and later, inspired by local London artists, turned to a stencil-artist for his free-hand pieces. In his own publication ‘Wall and Piece’ (2005), Banksy claims that he turned to stencils while he was ‘hiding from the police under a litter lorry’. Unfortunately, most of his early pieces were removed as it was considered ‘vandalism’. As a rage against this, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a side street in Soho, London. Now his works are considered as some of the most creative pieces of contemporary art.

He has gained the respect of a venerated artist and even won approval from the public who, via an internet discussion, overwhelmingly voted in support of keeping the image of ‘The Naked Man’ in central Bristol. With 97% of people in approval, the city council was forced to preserve the image. Proclaimed by the BBC as an ‘Artist’s saucy stencil for city’, this case illustrates how Banksy’s works are considered a national treasure that ironically requires the government to preserve them, even if the establishment itself is at the heart of his critique.

By depicting characters representative of some of the most marginalized and underrepresented members of society, such as gays and maids, Banksy constantly sends out provocative messages that stimulate public debate on topics that may otherwise remain stigmatized, viz. ‘Sweeping under the carpet’ and ‘One Nation under CCTV’. In addition to these issues, Banksy’s message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Connecting with the audience through public spaces, he uses the medium of street art to rally revolutionary change against the ignorance and aggressiveness of society; a society that stubbornly refuses to quit and one that is continually hungry to strive for more, viz. ‘The Bomb Hugger’.

Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us. Banksy’s pictorial epigrams make us think. He blends dark humor with a serious and oft scathing critique of the morals bound in our society.  While giving us a reason to laugh, he makes us question our own social norms and attitude.

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W A R N I N G!
Tapaile dial garnu bhayeko number ma ahile samparka huna sakena. Kripaya kehi samaya pachhi puna prayas garnu hola.
D H A N Y A B A D!

Alas, this is not an unusual warning as you many of you are already aware how horrible and painfully inefficient our phone services are. For years Nepalis have been dealing with similar seemingly insignificant but otherwise momentous problems such as poor phone connection.  This is momentous because these frustrations have mounted into a larger wave of discontent that can have far reaching implications. While most of us have accommodated these inconveniences into our lives, others continue to find a source, an impetus to take these frustrations and anger to a new height.

Rainbow Warrior and Mr. K, as they call themselves, decline to reveal their identities and just refer to a patch of lettering W A R N I NG on the wall of the library opposite Biswojyoti Hall in Jamal. But this was not the beginning of their defiant artsy protest. Earlier, the pair collaborated on a project where they distributed the infamous warning sign stickers ‘with grunts in between to their friends’. The same warning message was later printed on t-shirts that made a few sales. The little money raised from the t-shirt sales bought them the paints and brushes to take their frustrations further into the public space.

W A R N I N G was the first creation. Noticed by commuters, students and other passersby’s, the street art generated a buzz as to who might have created the work. People also started noticing the art as more of it appeared on the walls every day. ‘Our intention was to bring smiles on the faces of those who pass by,’ said Mr. K who is Nepali, and an avid lover of art. ‘I think we have been very successful in doing this. It can be reflected in the way people have taken interest in it,’ added Rainbow Warrior who is an alien in Nepal. Warning, however did not limit the potential of the message they had to spread. Making an individual stance amongst the hordes of slogans and announcements too many times frequent with political agendas, Mr. K and Rainbow Warrior’s work can be seen around the capital and on its walls, especially in the hot public spots like Jamal, Ratnapark, and Thamel.

Mummy told me not to do politics appeared early one morning and was similarly noticed by all who passed largely due to its quirkiness and child like manner of addressing a serious issue. The message was simple: politics is not a thing in which one should get involved. A caricature of a small Mr. K, the child who is speaking these words, is to be found standing beside these letterings at Lainchour.  Rainbow Warrior, on the other hand, has his own project where the letter boxes in the streets are given a colourful makeover. These letter boxes, in their old and dry state, are painted in the hues of rainbow and are given a new life. He intends to take this project seriously and continue in other parts of the city the next time he visits the country.

Quipped if there is any political inclination to what they have been doing, Mr. K asserted, ‘even if there is that is not our intention at all. We did because it’s good way to bring changes in the walls of Kathmandu.’ He added, ‘it is fun too.’  Similarly Rainbow Warrior acknowledges, ‘I wouldn’t take it otherwise even if some kind of authority came and wiped the paints from letter boxes,’ he quickly then said, ‘I could paint it all over again.’