With Cultural Heritage as the theme of the workshop, the participating artists were taken on a tour to various culturally and historically important sites in the Valley. In addition to that, the artists were also given the opportunity to interact with other senior artists and experts from related fields to hone their knowledge about the subjects they were working on.

The group of artists includes Sarita Dangol, Jasmine Rajbhandari, Sushma Shakya, Saurganga Darshandhari, Satyashila Kasajoo and Sumitra Rana. Despite being hemmed into a common theme, every artist chose their own standpoint while observing the cultural heritages of Kathmandu.

Sarita Dangol, who also coordinated the workshop, chose to highlight the importance of historical/religious inscriptions, as words and letters are the representatives of history itself. And in one of her paintings depicting Bodhisatva feeding his own flesh to a hungry tigress and her cubs, she tackles the issue of selflessness and altruism. “We’ve come to become extremely selfish. So, the Bodisatva’s fable touched me and I put it down on canvas’’ said Dangol.

Jasmine Rajbhandari’s paintings question the very idea of confinement of sacred deities behind locked doors in the name of preservation. She finds it ironic that these deities are also the metaphorical representations of human psyche that craves for freedom.

Similarly, Saurganga Darshandhari’s etched prints dwell on our dual nature when it comes to erotic figures carved on wooden struts in temples around us—we revere them, but at the same time refrain from discussing sexual issues and label it obscene.

Satyashila Kasajoo’s paintings speak for the preservation of historical monuments which are being looted and plundered in broad daylight. The empty temples, headless statues and broken wooden carvings that she has depicted in her paintings mock the insatiable nature of human greed.

And finally, using symbols like stone water-taps, bells, Buddhist prayer-wheels and temple struts, Sumitra Rana has tried delineating destruction of natural resources and cultural heritage by humans.

The exhibition is on till Sept 19