Sometimes, too much experimenting is dangerous, as the quality of execution may fluctuate. One needs to be clear as to what one is doing and why and should be courageous enough to face the results, be it good or bad

Kathmandu:

Staying put with the same old ways, old subjects, old theories… gets so tedious. Why not try something different, kind of experiment on something? Doesn’t it give us a good kick when we can see a new dimension of things, different than others holding, what they call, the ‘herd mentality’?

Experimenting and reinventing in any type of art can be dated back to a long time. But the context of trying out new things has not been lost. One thing that is new today, becomes old after some time.

Our denizens are not that behind when it comes to experimenting. For example, the music industry has seen its dose of experiments — a love-stricken son crying out to his mother to bring him the ‘same girl’, a drunken man asking his wife to open the door, et cetera et cetera.

Though folks here, especially younger ones, are increasingly inclined towards trying something new to deliver an idea better, it still seems to remain largely as an offbeat thing.

Says Sujan Chitrakar, an artist and art teacher, “The artists here, especially young, try out experimental works, but when they go back to their own medium, they are back to square one. It’s like ‘Sunday Experimental Artist-type’, as it is usually taken as an offbeat thing, not something that should be always present.”

He adds that sometimes the established artists too get stuck to their hallmark and don’t want to experiment due to the market factor. “However, it depends on the individual artist,” Chitrakar says. “Sometimes, too much experimenting is dangerous, as the quality of execution may fluctuate. One needs to be clear as to what one is doing and why and should be courageous enough to face the results, be it good or bad,” he adds.

With regards to recent developments in the theatre, Actor’s Studio, Nepal, founder Anup Baral, says that the attitude to try new things has not been institutionalised as such, but that individual efforts are definitely seen.

“It needs to grow further,” Baral says. “In theatre here, one is often not convinced about the returns. So it is difficult to try new things,” he explains.

He highlights the need for simplicity of expression even while experimenting. “For this, you have to clearly know the target audience in specific places when you perform,” Baral says.

A musician, who even jammed with his sarangi to rock songs like The Door’s Road House Blues recently, Shyam Nepali, says, “An instrument should be allowed to fly like an eagle spreading its wings fully. The flight will then be better and more relaxed. We haven’t seen the Sarangi flying fully. However, the instrument carries a certain socio-cultural ‘feel’, which should not be destroyed. The Nepali flavour should remain in our art. For example, we Sarangi players should have good knowledge of pinguls (way to tell stories) and the values of earlier Gandarvas.”

Regarding preserving the Nepali-ness in art, Baral also talks about the positive response they got for their drama Khuma where they had revived the traditional in the play and seen it through modern approach.

“When we took the play outside Nepal, we got a good response. In Bangalore, one of the newspapers reported that experimentation thrives where people are living under rough, painful conditions and that seeing our work, they expected more experimental works from Nepal.”

Coming to the personal front, one also has to think differently. “I try to play with ideas. Recently, my experimental work has been the use of dialogue boxes in my paintings in a different context than it was used earlier. Back, when I was in Class XI, I used to paint beautiful landscapes, which sold well. But I broke away from that for my own satisfaction, though it has not been much financially viable for me.”

Nepali too says, “From my childhood, I always wanted to jam sarangi with dhime and other Newari and modern instruments. Then I also jammed with my uncle on the tabla and madal. I have also played sarangi with wa-wa, delay, and flanger effects, which brought a positive response from audience.”

“One needs to have the ability to come up with new things, otherwise it will be very difficult to have a competitive edge. In Banki Ujjyalo, which we recently staged, we experimented on the subject matter, that of society’s taboos,” Baral explains.

There is definitely a growing number of people, especially youngsters, given more to experimenting, reinventing, or trying things differently. Let us hope the culture grows more, so that we get some fresh work regularly. But let’s also hope the quality of work is preserved, not like what we often see on TV!