Performance Art in Nepal

Live and Action Art in Nepal.

Based on evidence available so far, Nepali art started seeing performative forms and new mediums in the mid-1980s. This was the late Panchayat era (no-party system) which restricted free speech. Late Jiwan Acharya, was already experimenting that time with new art mediums and performative works on social and political issues. His work connected literature and visual arts since he was a poet, writer, graphic designer and a cartoonist with a diverse personality. He was also one of the founding members of Aarohan Theatre group. …

At the beginning of the millennium the active artists and those who returned to Nepal after further studies came together to do collective works with new mediums. Among them was Ashmina Ranjit who returned from Tasmania, Australia, and took such an initiative. According to art writer Dina Bangdel, “When ashmina came back after completing her BFA in 1999 from Australia, she was struck by the absence of conceptual thinking and critical evaluation, as well as the detachment of art from the socio-political transformation of the day, which more or less isolated contemporary Nepali art from the global art world movement. In such an environment, Ashmina realized the Nepali art scene was primarily concerned with balancing modern formal and aesthetic elements such as line, shape and colors, yet, conceptual contemporariness was missing from their art production. Seeing this need to redefine perception of art in Nepal, she undertook the effort to launch a number of art initiations.