“This is the first painting I did then,” she brings out a framed image of three faces that, according to her, represent the three stages of the people’s thinking capacity – lower, middle and higher. [break]
“I’ve done a thorough research on the human mind for many years,” she states, sitting in a chair in her studio at Nepal Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Naxal.
In a recently issued artist’s statement, Gyawali outlines that she has ‘invented’ the power of the human mind from 0% to 100%.
“I need to execute thousands of paintings, each nearly 15 to 20 meters long, in order to show my findings,” she puts in, adding that she needs financial support of the government, various embassies, and national and international organizations to carry out the task.
However, the artist refuses to reveal the findings of her research.
“It’s said that average humans only use 4% of their brain’s capacity. I’ve found out how to utilize the brain to full capacity,” asserts Gyawali. When asked if she has written down her research details, she answers that it is all “in her mind.”
“This finding has to reach out to the world,” highlights Gyawali, who maintains that several curators and museum directors have stated that her works need global recognition.
The forty-plus artist also argues to have ‘invented’ a new medium of art, i.e., from sawdust, threads, different dyes, etc. On the contrary, she has only put together different mediums that already exist in the market in her paintings, and has not invented a medium per se. Nevertheless, she repudiates, “I came up with the technique after two years of research.”
Gyawali, again, refuses to share the procedure with others, citing that doing so will lead to copyright infringement. The artist is concerned about maintaining her originality, and thus creativity. “Nepali artists have copying tendencies,” she states.
Unfortunately, it is this rather egoistic attitude of many Nepali artists that has prevented the field, as a whole, from moving ahead. It is not strange, therefore, to find students of the Lalit Kala Campus complaining about senior teachers who refuse to teach them ‘everything’.
Even so, Gyawali upholds her statement. “I’m looking forward to getting my paintings patented,” says the artist, who adds that she became intellectually aware after she began her work on the human mind.
Gyawali’s paintings depict faces with extremely exaggerated features. According to her, each image symbolizes one of the steps between 0% and 100%.
“When the human mind has more power, our senses become more aware, and they grow; and that’s what I’m trying to show visually,” she explains her somewhat elusive concept.
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