Recent political and socio-economic changes have been a major source of subject matter for books published. They are testaments of varied perceptions on current events and contemplate future courses and consequences. But how would a performance artist respond and record such social and political changes? How can a live performance with colour, movement and texture arrest and address such changes?

The recently published book Silence No Longer: Artivism of Ashmina tries to answer this very question. It also fills in the gap related to the lack of literature dealing with the connectivity between history and live performances. A performance is staged; evoking reactions from audiences at that very moment but with no means for recordkeeping.  Live performances allow the audience to experience art intimately in a public space, but that association can be transitory. Any attempt at visual recording remains futile in capturing the performance in its vibrant state. Thus, there is always a lack of materials to realise the efforts put by performance artists to address the Nepali socio-political changes of their time.

For the last decade and a half, Ashmina Ranjit, a Kathmandu-based pioneer artist, has carved out an important niche for herself, staging Nepali political and cultural issues through performative modes of art. Born and educated in Kathmandu, and trained academically in Australia and as a visiting artist in the US, Ranjit has through the years proved that she is neither an imitator of native art traditions nor is she a naïve emulator of western performance art forms. As a performance art practitioner, she has tried her best to remain iconoclastic. Her works address the political changes that Nepal has been going through since 2000, along with the age-old ‘gender troubles’, to borrow a term from Judith Butler, which have become obstacles to creating a properly democratic Nepali society.

Financed by the Australian Embassy and published by Vajra Books Thamel, Silence No Longer contains articles and photos of performances staged by Ranjit over the past decade and a half. Articles written by the late art critic Dina Bangdel and conversations between Pranika Koyu and the artist provide insight into the creative challenges Ranjit has had to take to invent her individual form of expression. Among three articles penned by Bangdel, two of them primarily deal with Ranjit’s art works and the art centre Lasanaa. The third, ‘Voices of Democracy: Performance and Installation Art of Ashmina Ranjit’, contextualises  Ranjit’s works in Nepal’s politics. Bangdel writes, “Her socio-political experimentations are significant expressions of political activism which critically interrogate the issues of migration, dislocation, and cultural memory”.

As a member of the audience in many of Ranjit’s performances and a fellow theatre practitioner, I have long been impressed by her daring performances in support of democratic voices at times when the history of this country was taking a violent course. Violations of human rights and muffling of free expression were rampant, both by the state and the Maoist guerrillas. Barbed wire, curfews, protests and violent killings were familiar metaphors of those times. It was in such eerie times and occasions, Ranjit’s performances would provide hope and energy to many people. In this process, she made people walk through lanes, chowks, courtyards and streets among security persons, freedom lovers, artists and supporters of the free media. Being a part of her performance was like walking a middle path that questioned extremes, represented then by the state backed armed forces on one hand and the Maoist guerrillas on the other. Her performances, therefore, provided a kind of safe zone.

Many theatre artists, including Anup Baral, Nisha Sharma and Salil Subedi, collaborated with Ranjit through their works and ideas. Capturing this very spirit of Ranjit’s works, Bangdel in her article writes that the “alternative and interdisciplinary approach” used by Ranjit “effectively captures the local/global histories of democracy”.

Another major thread in Ranjit’s performances is her feminist voice. From a lock of hair to a sanitary pad and colours like blood, Ranjit has tried to evoke the ‘gender troubles’ that Nepali women have been living with for ages. Even such feminist performances take a middle path, avoiding any extremist academic and political jingoism. This leads viewers and readers to believe in the egalitarian values that Ranjit’s performances try to induce. Watching her performances has led me to believe that art can be the most trustworthy medium of evoking democratic visions and voices. Thus, Ranjit’s coinage of ‘artivism’ to define her own works is very convincing. 

The book contains a dozen articles on Ranjit’s works and her journey as a performance artist. Articles by fellow artists from the West help readers understand the broader academic world of performing arts. Laura Kunreuther, Marna Kaneti and Owen Dufy’s articles lead readers to believe that performance art remains, or has to remain, very conscious of articulating an alternative voice in a democratic format. Kurchi Dasgupta’s article shows the departure that Ranjit’s works have made from the existing history of the modern art tradition in Nepal. Archana Thapa’s article puts Ranjit’s works in a broader academic world of feminism and performance studies.

Above all, the artist’s interview with Koyu can be regarded as important documentation, next to the articles by Bangdel, which help readers understand and interpret Ranjit’s artworks.

However, the best way to understand Ranjit’s performance art is to be part of her work as an audience or a fellow artist. But performance and the act of watching a performance, by their very nature, are ephemeral. Thus, in such an uncertain mode, there lurks a danger of losing track of the important history of the art.  The importance of this book lies in its effort to document the experience of both the artist as well as her audience, who have lived in difficult but historically important times. 

SILENCE NO LONGER

Publisher: Vajra Books 

Pages: 163

Price: Rs 4,400