sanjeev
maharjan

To understand each other’s lives, we listen, observe, share conversations, and search for that which makes us feel connected and a part of each other’s journeys. These are our tools as artists. In this project, four artists collaborated with two women leaders, Rekha Devi Yadav, a judicial committee member from Sarlahi, and Gauri Devi Bista from a grassroots women’s organization in Doti, to create artworks about those women’s lives, works, trauma, and struggles. The artworks delve into layers and pieces of who they are, in some ways representing the way we got to know them. Rekha Devi Yadav and Gauri Devi Bista’s stories represent women fighting for equal rights, freedom, and dignity living in different geographic regions of Nepal: the Eastern Terai and the Far Western hills, respectively. This project is a form of solidarity hence titled ‘We for Us’.

We tried our best to present these real-life stories honestly with empathy and dignity. The foundation of the collaboration was built on Rekha and Gauri’s trust. The relationship began over phone conversations. We sat and listened to their voices as they told their life stories to us, complete strangers, translating their thoughts into the Nepali language.  The questions we had prepared quickly gave way to the strength of their voices, commitment, experience, emotions, and power. While each had their own unique stories, both spoke about continuing to walk (make progress), to persevere, and move ahead.
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Gauri stated, “If I had not asserted myself and instead hidden away after my husband passed away, they [people in the village] would still speak against me. They’ve accepted me because I have done something with my life. If I had not hustled and had instead spent my time crying and begging for food from house to house, they would have ostracized me more. I feel like this is how I should live my life for them to respect me. This is how I feel, which is why I keep working, whether I can or cannot. This is how they will grow close to me.” Within a few minutes upon our request, she sang a song she had composed in response to the loss of her husband and being completely isolated from the village. Over the next few months the artists collaborated with her through music, conversations, and an exchange of photographs. Gauri ji as an artist and the choices she made to pick herself up have become a source of liberation for her village and for us.

In addition to phone conversations, we were lucky to visit Rekha Ji, who was called a “self-made woman” by the Municipality Chairperson in Brahmapuri. During one of the interviews she fearlessly stated, “As long as I live, I will continue; I will continue to help others as long as I can breathe. Why wouldn’t I help? I am ready to help. I do not have greed for anything.”  We first met Rekha ji outside the municipality building as she walked towards us with her a thin frame and head covered with her sari. As soon as she started to share her stories and her work, her aura filled the space. With her assertive voice and expressive hands that created movements in the air as she spoke.  She told us matter-of-factly, “These trainings I have received about laws and women’s rights over the years have become my hatiyar (weapon).”
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Rekha ji invited us, the artists, to her modest house built from her own earnings, where she lives with her husband, her son, and her daughters who visit. She is surrounded by the neighbourhood, and the aagan  (courtyard) of her home is both a public and a private space of safety. It is her sanctuary and her family’s but also a place where people come for advice and support from early morning onwards. With Rekha, Subima found a language of movement in hasta mudras (hand gestures) while Pranav and Uma explored moving and still images. Muna sent us questions and we answered them in the form of images that she composed into her own artworks.
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Each one of us have listened to the recordings and revisited the images again and again to understand the depth and the layers to these two women, the complexities of their lives, their work, and who they are as people. We began to imagine the places, surroundings and their struggles. Over the few months, our questions evolved. How do they live? What do they look like? How do they walk? How do they speak? What are the surroundings they have been living in? What drives them? How do they engage with others? Each artist connected in a way that related to their own lives as well. Each artist has found their own way to listen and create a conversation that is with Rekha ji, Gauri ji each other, and now the audience.