‘At Tipping Point: Art and Ecology from Rooftop of World’ begins

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, June 7: An art exhibition titled ‘At the Tipping Point: Art and Ecology from the Rooftop of the World’ began at the Taragaon Cultural Centre in Kathmandu on Thursday.

Marking World Environment Day, the exhibition portrays the impact of environmental change through a variety of creative mediums, bringing together art, ecology, and critical thought.

Organised by Sagarmatha Next in collaboration with the Saraf Foundation, the exhibition is curated by Indian art historian Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala.

 Dr. Lokhandwala said that the exhibition has been curated in response to urgent global ecological concerns, with a focus on artistic interpretations of environmental degradation.

The exhibition was inaugurated with a live performance titled ‘Earth Emergence’ by artist Salil Subedi and his team.

 In the performance, artists covered themselves in red mud to symbolise direct connection with the earth, highlighting the intimate relationship between humans and soil. 

The conceptual core of the exhibition is inspired by postcolonial thinker Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s theory of ‘planetarity,’ which urges a renewed perspective on our relationship with the Earth.

Centred on the Himalayan region, which is experiencing a rate of warming nearly double the global average, the exhibition engages with themes such as climate change, indigenous knowledge, scientific inquiry, and cultural memory. 

The exhibition features the works of 12 Nepali and international artists.

 The exhibition spans a global perspective from the Arctic to the Andes, from the fields of Nepal to the digital cloud, framing a shared environmental narrative within the context of art.

The exhibition will run for three months. Entry fees have been set at Rs. 200 for students and Rs. 300 for the general public.