Bidhata KC

Bidhata is a visual artist with an amazingly varied scope of works that ranges from working with leaves, utilising plastic bottles and constructing physically massive but usually familiar structures – creations that leave the viewer astounded. Her family is from Satdobato, Patan and she attended the Lalitkala Campus for a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, followed by a Master’s in Sociology and a Master’s in Print Making, all at Tribhuvan University. She now also teaches ‘A’ Level Art at school. As the youngest of four sisters, she was originally keen on sports like volleyball. Study and the arts were not on her horizon at that time. It was her father who influenced her to take the course at Lalitkala. She is the only artist in the family.

From college she began visiting art galleries to find ideas and inspiration, but a restless spirit beckoned, and she began exploring art through mediums other than paint. She found inspiration from nature and leaves in particular. “Leaves may be just part of a plant, but from them comes recognition of the whole plant” – a thought-provoking theme that inspired her earliest art. Bidhata worked for nearly two years at the Buddha Art Gallery, mixing with other artists and gaining experience. She realised by 2006 that she really needed “to get going” and become more serious about her art. Developing an identity as a visual artist is difficult, as the range of subject matter is so vast. How does it connect with society, how does it impact culture and what is its importance to the self? Does identity exist without culture/temples/everyday objects? How is traditional society mixing now with modern ideas? – so many themes and questions.

Bidhata visited drug rehabilitation centres, women in prison and sex workers in her search for answers to their plight – always “Why them?” and “Why is it so?” Subjects flowed from the social conditions into her art. In 2017 she designed and built her own version of the Rato Machhendranath chariot for the Nepal Art Council. Set on three separate floors of the building, it was divided into wheels space, god space and tower space – an astonishing piece of visual art by any standards. It alas is no more, perhaps reflecting on the impermanence of everything. Other unusual images are her water bottle installation (the message is clear) and stone mosaic floor works.

Bidhata regularly paints too; her series from a trek to Upper Mustang made her realise that painting has an important a place in her portfolio. She is a very adventurous woman and has trekked to Manang, Helambu, Mustang and over the Larkya La on the challenging Manaslu Circuit. We personally know how hard that pass is! Just before Covid, Bidhata was invited by the MEDO Art Space to visit Vienna, but sadly it was curtailed just after her arrival due to Covid. It was a frustrating time for her, but she turned it around to produce one of her most inspired works for the MoNA Tangential Stress exhibition.

Words cannot describe much of her work; see pictures of her inspired creations on her website www.bidhatakc.com