Saturday, March 5, 2016

Notes from Art for Nepal


Art for Nepal is a fundraiser I initiated in May 2015, to help my Nepali colleagues/friends at Sustainable Mountain Architecture Studio in post disaster reconstruction work. I decided to make scans and reprints of my 2014 travel drawings from Nepal as limited edition art prints and postcards. In August 2015, the project grew to become a collaboration with architects Lakshmi Nair and Sarojini Dantapalli as they developed the Art for Nepal notebooks with original drawings on their covers. The money raised (INR 1.8 Lakh = USD 2650) was used for constructing three transitional homes using local materials and labour in rural Nepal. 

This project would have not been possible without the unending support from Co.Lab Design and Turmeric Design and the generous help from Aarna & Anmol Gupta, Anne Feenstra, Bhavika Aggarwal, Broti Bhattacharya, Deepak Patankar, Jasjyot Singh Hans, Jyoti Patankar, Kriti Monga, Monika Agarwal, Rahul Patankar, Raunaq Kapoor, Reshu Singh, Saurabh Jain, Sneha Punjabi and Varun Bajaj. Rohan is very grateful to Thomson Press and Sona Signature Papers for their contribution towards the printing and paper as well as to instamojo for facilitating the payment gateway at zero percent processing fees.

The project featured was in Platform Magazine, Deccan Herald, Times of India, The Better India, The Scribbler, Bindass Republic, Unbind Magazine

Instagram diaries from when Sarojini and I travelled to Nepal in December 2015, to help build the final two transitional homes from the Art for Nepal funds:

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'If this was any other country, you guys wouldn't  even be here right now.' The blockade and the consequent fuel crisis in Nepal is something that I had briefly read about before we came, but  only this week did we realize how deeply it has disrupted several aspects of everyday life in rural and urban Nepal. Over the past four months, the stocks from India for basic to specialised medicines, LPG cylinders manufactured clothing, petrol and even Indian made packaging for Nepali products have only been sparingly available. The buses and micros are all running wayy beyond their capacity, taxis are super expensive to take, several basic things are being sold in black, tools and supplies have gotten more expensive, transporting the materials to site has gotten more expensive. Our project here is already running over our estimated budget and it's almost funny to realize we have much to do with it. Even though it almost feels like bullying, the constraints have been pushing our team to keep going more and more local with everything.
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