WHAT MAKES YOU KEEP ON MOVING FORWARD?

तपाईलाई अगाडी बदी रहन केले मदत गर्दछ ?

charcoal and digital printing on printer paper, adhesive

site-specific, dimensions variable

2017

Located in the ancient area that was once the border of armed conflicts between two communities in Patan, I try to establish a series of murals within a block, constituted of image collage of rubbing from the well-known local woodcarving crafts, decorative temples and traditional Newar architectures.

The whole set of 8 murals indicates a divine tour of god in its realm and people’s parade like “Rato Machindranath Jatra” in Nepal, which shows obvious similarity with “Goddess Mazu Pilgrimage Procession (媽祖遶境)” in Taiwan. Along the several days of procession, people follow the god’s guidance, keep moving forward and pray for god’s blessing, even though the journey could be tough and exhausting.

Here I focus on human’s will of “moving forward”, in both physical and spiritual ways, while Nepal has endured the great earthquake in 2015 and is currently undergoing increasingly faster steps of modernization. Apparently, such a disaster destroys, but somehow speeds up the development simultaneously. This country is moving forward, but how about the people here? What did they have? What have they gained? What are they losing? It’s said “life will always find its way out”, but do they really find theirs?

Among 8 murals there are 2 divine chariots in Nepal and Taiwan, and the rest 6 reveals various situations in life according to their figures and gestures. Following the direction indicated by these murals, audience will realize that it’s a circle, just as “Mandala”, in which there’s neither start nor end.