Birendra Pratap Singh
Birendra Pratap Singh
Reg. Charity No.1121118
© KCAC 2010
Observing time in motion - Exhibtion at KCAC January 2010
The two Kutubs (wrestlers), protectors of Sanatan faith (faith in existence since time unknown) suddenly move away from their respective positions in front of the Nyatapol temple in Bhaktapur. The temple itself is about to crumble – a scene depicted in a pen-and-ink drawing by ‘Prince’ Birendra Pratap Singh, which is enough to speak about his philosophy.
‘Prince’ because he belongs to the royal lineage of the erstwhile Bajhang principality, which regarded Jayamal and Fatta, 16th century religious martyrs from Udaipur, India, as their ancestors. However, Mr. Singh may not be aware that the Kutubs in Nyatapol and the Dattatreya temples in Bhaktapur are none other than his revered ‘ancestors’, who gave up guarding glory because all is perishable. What a coincidence!
It was not the devastating earthquake of 1933 or the earthquake warnings of 1990s that made him see that all perishes. It was rather a third eye he possessed that made him see the life of Nepal that way for three decades. It was of course a prophecy because in ‘New Nepal’ old values and establishments are bound to go.
For this exhibition, after serious soul searching, he has ventured into a new theme titled ‘Electro Cardiogram’. At the end of the ECG Patients series stands a double edged sword named ‘Kichkanya’. The legend of Kichkanya refers to a comely female ghost, who seduces males to kill them. Nowadays, the lexicon is also used to mean a beautiful girl giving sleepless nights. An ECG patient craves for the second type but falls under the clutch of the first type. This phenomenon in Sanskrit is known as Mriga Marichika - a mirage. Presenting a Biskanya (bar girl) would have been absolutely wrong there.
The silver color for white blood cells and copper color red blood cells may reflect the oxygenation capacity of the heart. But it cannot evade the contemporary mass hysteria of the people caught between White guards Vs Red guards giving their heartbeats thundering jolts, inviting prompt ECG tests. The entire country has become a heart patient!
Thirty–seven years ago, he had a creation hung over the wall. It was a plywood engraving showing a bride being carried away in a palanquin through a narrow and winding path over a hilly cliff, followed by her groom under an umbrella. The artist at the time had just returned from Bangladesh, a country born after a bloody civil war. It was clear that the artist was not for destruction (war making) but marriage (love making). In his current work the same feeling is evident when his pen and ink runs from the theme of ECG to Kichkanya. ECG patients are footless and Kichkanyas are traditionally known as female ghosts having toes turned backwards. Though the ghost is there in only one sketch, the message is clear.
Together we have seen Rembrandt in Antwerp and Leonardo Da Vinci in Milan; visited the October and Tate Galleries in London and in summer 1989 Beethoven in Bonn. The ‘voyage vagabond’ continued even after I gave up my literary adventure 25 years ago only to follow him in Bungamati, Bhaktapur, and Dhulikhel and then mingling with other contemporary artists.
He created a series on ‘Thakkhola’, a well-known medieval salt route to Tibet, of which nearly half of the public dwellings today have crumbled into ruin. How impressive his drawings would feature if they were based on present-day Silk route in Central Asia or Salt route in Northern Africa, the crumbling ‘series’ scattered from Turkey to Mauritania! I nurture the hope that one day we will be able to see his creations on Bajhang reflecting his philosophical approach on Chhanna, Chainpur, Bhopur and other places, in spite of the fact that we are facing a completely new theme called ECG.
It has always remained a pleasant experience to watch, observe and analyse Birendra’s creations when he is right there, like an art himself, sipping and listening to us.
Saurav
Columnist
INTRODUCTION to BIRENDRA PRATAP SINGH’s exhibition at the Siddhartha Art Gallery in May 2009
I first came across Birendra Pratap Singh and his pen and ink drawings at the Srijana Art Gallery in Jamal in the summer of 1987.
The Gallery was situated close to the Rastriya Naach Ghar and over looked the scenic Rani Pokhari and the hustle bustle of the
frenzied traffic intersection of Kantipath, Bhotahity and Jamal. This was before Srijana Art Gallery relocated to a more spacious
address further up the road. I learnt that Birendra Pratap Singh was one of the founder members of the Srijana Art Gallery and that he
was working at Gorkhapatra Sansthan, the national newspaper, in the capacity of art director/illustrator. It was not difficult to forge a
rapport with this soft-spoken bespectacled artist whose intense gaze and quirky sense of humor seemed to fit right in with his
reputation as the “only one irregular drawer of Nepal”. Many years later, in 2005, he participated in the exhibition ‘Celebrating Line”
that was dedicated to drawings at the Siddhartha Art Gallery
For Birendra, traditional architecture and the environment are the two subjects close to his heart. His early drawings of the Benares Ghats as a student in the late 1970’s, display his command of line and his preoccupation with architecture. It is interesting to compare how this formal academic style of drawing was to change with time. The artist describes his drawings as “pure psychic automatism” – a deep personal reaction to Nepal’s unique cultural landscapes. Whether it is Bungmati, Khokana or Bhaktapur, there is a deep concern about the country’s incomparable collective heritage and the “fragile environment.” This is why his exhibition in 1994 was deliberately titled “Save Bungamati”
Over the last thirty years, Birendra has deliberately cast aside a formal academic style and has chosen to distort perspective, maintaining that in irregular drawing “there is a value of each and every line and form”. As an admirer of the Surrealists and the Dadaists he imbues his drawings with a sense of fantasy. Like a voyeur who has stumbled upon a time past, his pen and ink drawings of Khokana, Bungamati Baglung and Bhaktapur reveal a world where men, women and children with spindly crooked legs, sprawl out on crooked woven mats that are juxtaposed next to crooked haystacks. Even the house and lanes are crooked and the temples and stupas seemed to stoop over precariously, reminding me of a poem, that we were taught as children… “there was a crooked man, who lived in a crooked house..”
However there are more serious pressing issues in the artist’s drawings. In 1989, a major earthquake struck Nepal, causing much damage. An earlier earthquake in 1933, leveled many cultural monuments, altering the cultural landscape of Kathmandu forever. The fear that Nepal may lose all its cultural monuments in the next great earthquake looms large in the artist’s mind. Birendra also feels that uncontrolled urbanization and the recent political changes in the country have not brought in policies that protect and conserve the county’s endangered heritage. The reality is that our iconic monuments are now in a dilapidated state and have been reduced to becoming icons of apathy and fatalism. This neglect of heritage and the environment was to give Birendra his raison d’etre as an artist. Over the years he has traveled all over Nepal, and created his own archive of photographs that document Nepal’s heritage. The artist uses these photographs as reference for his heritage series. Birendra’s latest drawings of Bhaktapur draw attention to the city’s great culture. There is a deliberate heightened sense of decay in these drawings to draw attention to the pressing need for preservation – even the subjects in the drawings seem to take aversion to the ruinous state of their city. The statue of Jayasthithi Malla comes alive, and seems ready to avenge those who put this fabled city of art at peril. Even the stone animals walk across the Durbar Square in defiance of the fate bestowed upon them in the 21st century. In yet another drawing, masks come alive and decry their neglect - a villager gazes at these transformed masks in astonishment.
Birendra Pratap’s eleventh solo exhibition is a provocative celebration of Nepal’s tangible and intangible heritage. It can also be viewed as a satire on Nepal political, economic and social situation. As Nepalis we need to ask ourselves a pertinent question; what will the loss of culture and heritage mean to its citizens, to the country and to the world? It is easy to get seduced by the playful charm of the artist’s drawings but above all it is important to be cognizant that Birendra’s work advocates for a committed response from his viewers.
Sangeeta Thapa
Art Curator/Director
Siddhartha Art Gallery
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