Study of History III
2018 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
48 x 22.2 cm
Subas Tamang
Study of History III by Subas Tamang is an etching and aquatint print based on photographs taken by German photographer Volkmar Wentzel in 1949. Wentzel’s original color photographs document the transportation of a Mercedes Benz, carried on a wood armature by sixty porters, over a rocky trail from Bhimphedi to Kathmandu in Nepal. At the time of Wentzel’s photographs, paved roads in Nepal only existed within the Kathmandu Valley and cars had to be carried into the city from the surrounding hills on foot. Wentzel’s images have been reinterpreted by Subas to call attention to the oppression of the Tamang people by Nepal’s ruling class. Cars were imported for their lavish lifestyles, but little regard was given to common Nepalis or access to basic necessities for their health and well-being. Generations of Indigenous people paid the price for this opulence, the impacts of which are still felt to this day in Nepal. Subas’s work can also be read as performance—as an action embodying the violence of history. This refigured artwork by Subas is an attempt to understand, rediscover, and reinterpret Tamang history.
Part of the Indigenous Tamsaling community in Nepal, Subas Tamang comes from a family of traditional stone carvers. Subas often incorporates carving, engraving, as well as various printmaking techniques into his art practice. Much of Tamsaling history is based primarily on oral narrative traditions. Responding to the lack of documentation in his community’s historical legacy, Subas seeks to archive the cultural and social fabrics of his and other communities through art. Tamang is also a member of Artree, an artist collective formed in 2013 with Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Hit Man Gurung, Mekh Limbu, and Lavkant Chaudhary who come from a range of Indigenous communities of Nepal. ??Artree practices art collectively with the belief that it has deep roots in social practice. The mainstream narrative of Nepal and its surrounding region has historically excluded the stories and experiences of numerous disenfranchised Indigenous communities. Artree’s collective and individual practices draw attention to these dogmatic social hierarchies through installations, exhibitions, workshops and events.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Maya Watanabe
2013Three men with their backs to each other, dressed similarly in dark colors, stare straight at the camera...
© » KADIST
Gisela McDaniel
2020Got Your Back by Gisela McDaniel depicts two women of color from different ethnic backgrounds who share similar violent experiences...
© » LITHUB
How Alien We Seem: On Being Blind and Obsessed with Photography ‹ Literary Hub Craft and Criticism Fiction and Poetry News and Culture Lit Hub Radio Reading Lists Book Marks CrimeReads About Log In Literary Hub Craft and Criticism Literary Criticism Craft and Advice In Conversation On Translation Fiction and Poetry Short Story From the Novel Poem News and Culture History Science Politics Biography Memoir Food Technology Bookstores and Libraries Film and TV Travel Music Art and Photography The Hub Style Design Sports Freeman’s The Virtual Book Channel Lit Hub Radio Behind the Mic Beyond the Page The Cosmic Library The Critic and Her Publics Emergence Magazine Fiction/Non/Fiction First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Future Fables The History of Literature I’m a Writer But Just the Right Book Keen On The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan New Books Network Read Smart Talk Easy Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast Write-minded Reading Lists The Best of the Decade Book Marks Best Reviewed Books BookMarks Daily Giveaway CrimeReads True Crime The Daily Thrill CrimeReads Daily Giveaway Log In How Alien We Seem: On Being Blind and Obsessed with Photography M...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Experiencing a slice of life: Artist’s Block by ArtWave | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints Zinkie Aw March 1, 2022 By Noorul Raaha As’art (830 words, 3-minute read) Waterloo Street is a smorgasbord of sensory experiences, from Hindu and Buddhist temples coexisting side by side, to old uncles and aunties hawking religious paraphernalia, shaded by their New Moon abalone umbrellas, and stalls offering acupuncture services, amongst other things...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
The ArtsEquator Logo Challenge: How Well Do You Know Your Southeast Asian Capitals? Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints January 22, 2019 Hands up if you’ve ever wondered what the ArtsEquator logo symbolises! 🙋 Few can identify all the Southeast Asian capitals represented by the red dots on the logo...
© » KADIST
Victor & Sergiy Kochetov
1992Ukraine-Russia / Volleyball by Viktor and Sergiy Kochetov features a concrete monument of women volleyball players before the railway station in the village of Vodyanoye, Kharkiv region...
© » KADIST
Nguyen 'Quoc' Thành
2012A Soldiers’ Garden by Nhà Sàn Collective is a night portrait series located in an army camp outside Hanoi...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Pandemic in the Philippines: A cultural sector on its own | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles August 17, 2020 By Katrina Stuart Santiago (2,200 words, 8-minute read) When I was first asked to write about “cultural leadership” in the Philippines, I turned up a blank...
© » KADIST
Olga Grotova
2022Our Grandmothers’ Gardens by Olga Grotova is based on the history of Soviet allotment gardens, which were small plots of land distributed amongst the families of factory workers to compensate for poor food supply in a country that was over-producing weapons...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
10 Art Books to Add to Your Shelf This December Skip to content Kareem Khubchandani's Decolonize Drag , Sonya Clark's newest catalogue, and more books we're reading this December (photo Lakshmi Rivera Amin/ Hyperallergic ) If you’re shamefully counting the titles you didn’t get around to reading this year, know that you are not alone...
© » KADIST
Sharon Lockhart
2008Lockhart’s film Lunch Break investigates the present state of American labor, through a close look at the everyday life of the workers at the Bath Iron Works shipyard—a private sector of the U...
© » KADIST
Carolina Caycedo
2014YUMA o la tierra de los amigos (YUMA, or the Land of Friends) by Carolina Caycedo is a large mural containing a series of satellite photographs mounted on acrylic...
© » KADIST
Curtis Talwst Santiago
2017Curtis Talwst Santiago has been creating intimate and performative environments within these small spaces for several years; the artist used to carry them around to show visitors one on one, opening up a scene in the space of his hand...
