A friend asked she wanted to know and write about our experience and work that we did for a month's Artist Residency in Nepal.
An Artist in Residency [AIR] is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist-in-residence
The following text is what I should have written when I returned home; but I guess it's never to late.
Mehrbano Khattak
talks of her experience and work at AIR @ BAC, Nepal
Going to "Federal
Democratic Republic of Nepal" for a Residency at Bikalapa Art Center was
exciting and a little worrying too for us and myself. A new place, an unknown
territory, new people and so on. Once we reached there, the best thing we did
was to switch modes on experience, explore and evoke. The same day we reached
we contacted our residency host Mr. Saroj Mahato and set a meeting time.
It was meeting a
complete stranger but the best part of being from an art world is that we meet
and greet each other on the same level.
Our background, middle ground and foreground involves the language of
various schools of art, the common factor is "aesthetics". Meeting the other partners in crime was an
experience in its self, because all the participates were asked to give
presentations of works that we do and with that present the concepts we want to
work on in our duration, while being on this residency program.
What we received
from this introduction was, acceptance ... openness ... open to learning ... etc. And then the
journey of work began. It was a hectic routine I must say, meeting with artist,
going for lectures, going for visits and also finding time for completing our
works.
So, now about my
work that I did at Bikalapa Art Centre.
Title: Introspective
Medium: Mix
Medium
Size: 3'x2'
Pattern is the theme of our working
group, we have taken the word "pattern", and tend to explore this as
visual artists. My work above is a consideration of one's own thoughts or emotions;
when our repetition [pattern] changes. I have reached the moment in life when I want to
describe my work, not starting as "my work explores"; but I want to
start my statement as, "I want to view my work ...".
Thus, I wanted to
view my work as a result of an exploration, as a result at the end of a
relationship, as a result of a pattern of emotional memories, as a result of a new engaged subculture just for me
and my viewer. The work I produced was an influence of a diversity into a
pattern, like a an internal religion and an outer religion; declaring a new
combination. Generated from both explicit and implicit narratives, talking
amongst them-selves; leaving me and you outside to ponder. While, doing that it
developed into me looking at myself ... and the surprising part of my work was;
"I could never see how people saw me, until I saw myself."
