Her observations of everyday Nepal

KATHMANDU: For an artist, inspiration can come from anything and anywhere. Even the things that we think are litter or garbage such as torn jute sack, mango peel, thread, plastic bags, bottles, et cetera could intrigue an artist for his/her work.

Likewise, the things we see in our everyday life and things that we don’t care much about have turned into beautiful artwork in the exhibition ‘You are the Observer’ by German visual artist Lena Koester at Artudio, Chhauni Hospital Road, Swoyambhu.

It is Koester’s first visit to Nepal and she was here to experience a new culture to expand her horizon in art. She did not have any plans to hold an exhibition. However, her thoughts of not doing an exhibition changed while travelling around Kathmandu where she was amazed by the things seen on the streets, things in stores and more.

Her work ‘The Observed’ is a series of collages in three different frames. She has pasted different pieces of jute in combination of clean jute with jute smeared with mud. According to her, when she found two torn jute sacks lying on the side of a street, she thought what they had accomplished and had been left to rot in the dirt. The jute sack reminded her of natural element — earth — so decided to use them in her artwork.

About the exhibition she explained, “I saw aesthetics in the things lying on the streets and things that are used here in everyday life. The theme of the exhibition is that every object has its purpose, so with this exhibition I am appreciating the things that served someone well. And I was amazed by the variety of materials that I had never seen in my life. Like the plastic bags with water hanging from the ceiling in stores. I think it is put there to get rid of flies. I got motivated by these everyday objects and created my installations for the exhibition.”

In ‘Hidden’ she created an installation using many transparent plastic bags — some filled with clear water, some with pink flowers, changing the colour of water to pink that have been hanging from the ceiling.

The exhibition which is her observation of Nepal began on September 9 and continues till September 13.