“Every time I get a new mission, it’s my mother who’s more excited than me, she would go through every line of my mission schedule, ask me about troubleshooting mechanisms, what would I do in so and so situation? Why would I do it and on and on.

She would even demand me to send updates and esp images every two days as if she is a chief mission controller. She would prepare foods I like most, freeze it, vacuum pack it and label it.

This time I would be gone for much longer and I could see sadness behind her excited face for she knows only too well about not hearing from dear ones lost in mission.”

. . Memories of the future.

Parallax featuring Bhagat Subba, first premiered at Serendipity Arts Festival; Look Stranger, Goa Dec. 2019, imagines indigenous narrative in futuristic scenario, where indigenous language, values and sense of belonging not only serve as cultural entity but also inspire scientific endeavours. It imagines a future where indigenous folk tales and shamanic chants will have totally different function with totally different purpose.

This work uses one of the few remaining indigenous scripts in practice today in Nepal. This Yakthung script belongs to my Limbu – also known as Yakthung – indigenous community from eastern Nepal, and the voice is an early 1991 recording from the first music album in Limbu language by Bhagat Subba. It was illegal to record and distribute indigenous music before 1989. Subba often mentions that he was denied to sing in his Limbu language in the national Radio Nepal when he passed his voice test in 1977.

This work also uses sound and images (especially of Sagittarius A*) from NASA’ s archive.

This work is based on the idea of how words are contextualized to serve certain power structures despite its intended meaning. The word democracy, basically meaning the rule of the people, is one of the most used terms in political history, its presence though is contested even in states that claim to be democratic. More importantly or rather unfortunately, this contextualizing of the term democracy by Western nation-states to strengthen their hegemony in natural resource rich countries around the world is openly practiced.

This piece uses interviews and sound files from news outlets and tv documentaries, remixed with additional music.

Sound work at Project Radio,2017 10:56
Audio link

https://www.mixcloud.com/projectradiouk/a-short-story-about-democracy-subash-thebe/

Kafala was a performance art done at the gates of Embassy of Qatar, London in 2013.

Kafala is a visa sponsorship system in gulf states including Qatar, “where a worker’s visa and legal status is tied to her employer. This system creates a profound power imbalance between employers and workers and imposes tight restrictions on migrant workers’ rights.” (HRW, 2014)

Thousands of Nepalese migrant workers leave for UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia every year. After 2013 shocking revelation of migrant workers’ death in Qatar, there was a huge outcry from all international communities against poor treatment and slavey like conditions of workers in the Middle East.

Although Qatar recently abolished the exit visa requirement in January 2020, which was a part of the Kafala system, it still has all other parts of the system leaving workers vulnerable to exploitation.