This is Karan Shrestha, the artist who created this work called ‘water-givers, memory-keepers
and the shifting forces’.
You will see three cotton papers with ink drawings.
The outline of each resembles a continent.
They contain many details, with drawings depicting humans, landscapes, animals and water.
In the exhibition space, on the plinth, a series of bronze water vessels has been placed.
There is also a textile in blue and green, featuring pink bacterium.
For the past few years, I’ve been making artworks about the state of water in Nepal.
There are several reasons for this – ranging from the ecological to the political to the personal.
I am curious the relationship between water and South Asia.
In the past two decades in Nepal, there has been much discussion about building dams for hydropower, generating and selling electricity to neighbouring countries.
The government claims that Nepal is the most water-rich country in Asia, and the second most in the world, thanks to a wealth of glacial water, rivers and rivulets available for extraction.
This is an illusion that the government promotes to sustain conversation about large-scale development plans.
In reality, wealthier people have more access to water than poorer communities.
Most people have to purchase water to consume.
Government corruption and mismanagement of water have led to severe impacts on both the health of Nepali people and the environment.
In Kathmandu, untreated wastewater from industry and agriculture enters the rivers and other places, all unchecked.
According to data from Nepal’s Department of Health Services, around 3,500 children die each year due to waterborne diseases, such as intestinal parasitic infections and diarrhoeal illnesses.
Overall, Nepal is experiencing increasingly unpredictable weather – periods of excessive rains, and monsoons followed by long dry seasons.
The vessels at this stop are where people often store rainwater.
This ensures they have enough to survive these dry periods.
However, by storing water for prolonged periods in this way, people accidentally create ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, leading to the spread of dengue, affecting their health.
For a small country, Nepal has six major climate zones, and over a hundred different ethnic groups.
People use water very differently in different regions.
For centuries, these communities have valued the flow of water and lived in harmony with nature.
Water isn’t just something for people to take – it is something to be shared with all living beings.
When I look at these artworks, I want to see nature, people and society, and how everything is connected.
The aim is to keep things complex – not to simplify or explain them away, but to allow you and others to have your own interpretations of the work.