Painting A New Beginning
The Kathmandu Eco Hote Organized an art event-Titled 11:56 AM with Artist Jyoti Prakash BK ,was all set to paint — donning his apron, bottles of colour on a table, brush in his hand and a blank canvas on the wall.
He began painting at exactly 11:56 am on June 8 on the canvas that was 7.8 metres long and 45 inches wide.He splashed vibrant colours like orange, blue, purple, yellow, red and more on the canvas then vigorously started to move his hands up and down, walked side to side and painted on the canvas creating different patterns and geometrical shapes where within 10 minutes he filled the entire canvas with different colours.
BK looked like a warrior armed with a brush and colours. And he was not painting in his studio but at Basantapur as a way to sympathise with people who suffered due to 7.6 magnitude (on Richter sclae) earthquake of April 25. This was the reason he titled his painting 11:56AM indicating the powerful tremor that shook the nation with the length symbolising the magnitude of the quake and the width the 45th day after the earthquake.
About choosing Basantapur for the live painting, BK expressed,I have come to this place to sketch many times in my life and the devastation around this area gives me heartache. Many of the cultural heritages of Basantapur are gone and it has been declared as a danger zone. So to give a message that we should not panic in this time of sorrow but that we have to stay in our places and should build the lost identity ourselves, I choose this area to work.”The live painting was orgnaised by the Kathmandu Eco Hotel in association with BK.
The piece created will be auctioned at a charity aution — the starting price of the painting has been put at Rs 1,000,000. The amount will directly go to the Prime Minister Relief Fund with a message of building nation through the medium of art that plays a vital role in the development of nation, as per Sahadev Dhamala (BIMAL), Managing Director of Kathmandu Eco Hotel.BK completed the semi-abstract piece using acrylic within the target time of four hours.
He created an urban scenario in a colour alignment of white, yellow and grey, dusty fog. In the painting, the flow of colours and square or rectangular patterns and square newspaper collage resembled destroyed houses. However, he created realistic undamaged temples, shrines and chaityas symbolising his expectation to see these cultural heritages back where they were sine ages.He has also created huge flowers of a collage of newspapers on the either side of the canvas. “The flowers are a symbol of purification and beginning of a beautiful life.
