Women behind hues

KATHMANDU: Erina Tamrakar, an artist who has established herself as a painter of female forms, adds another exhibition to her achievements. Her second solo exhibition ‘Reflection and Reality’ at Gallery Nine, Lazimpat was inaugurated by Ingrid Ofstad, the ambassador of Norway.

Erina has come a long way since her first exhibition ‘Reflection of Life’. She has gained maturity and a deeper sense of reality. Her subjects are again women but her forms and lines are stronger and she plays with the presentation of her ideas. They are even experimental alluding to the inner thoughts of the figures, their hidden identity and search for selves. Some works spill over from one canvas only to integrate in another.

Bordering on the ideational, Erina projects in her subjects an emotive content that is moving. “For over many centuries, artists have tried to portray the female body. But their treatment of women has been an object of vision, a sight. Seeing Erina’s paintings one, however, doesn’t feel that women are men’s objects of vision,” stated Ajit Baral, member of Gallery Nine. “That’s perhaps because of the way she paints women — in contours or from the back and with veiled faces or babies.”

The exhibition continues till February 28.

Unworldly wise

KATHMANDU: ‘Sadhus: The Great Renouncers’, an exhibition of photographs by Thomas Kelly was inaugurated by Kunda Dixit, editor of Nepali Times at the Indigo Gallery, Naxal on February 13. During the ceremony, sadhus of the Ram Marga sect (Ram worshippers) from Janakpur set up a traditional ‘Dhuni’ (fire pit) and sang ‘bhajans’ or devotional music in the garden.

The evening air was alive with the songs dedicated to devotees as the ‘sadhus’ played their tablas and cymbals. With the approaching Shivaratri, the festival of lord Shiva, the ‘sadhus’ lent an understanding to the photographs on display.

Thomas Kelly is a photographer of international repute. He has had his works published in the ‘National Geographic’, ‘Newsweek’, ‘Time’, ‘Natural History’, ‘Smithsonian’, ‘Le Figaro’, ‘Stern’ and ‘Geo’. From 1990 to 1991 he was the corporate photographer for ‘The Body Shop Int’.

The photos on display are awesome. Kelly captures not only the subject but also the feeling of the moment. His compositions are fantastic renditions of the emotive quality that also explains his fascination for his subjects. “’Sadhus’ are an enigma to me, living the mystery of ancient questions that have no answers. They are a spectacle and love to play their assigned role in the illusion or drama of society. Their masks are thickly painted on their naked bodies. ‘Sadhus’ have formally abandoned conventional time; their world is dense with its own complex politics, social hierarchy, taboos and customs, often making access challenging,” states Kelly.

Also a sociologist and anthropologist, the pictures tell that the photographer knows his subjects well.

The exhibition continues till February 29. — Himalayan News Service