Nepali Times

After being featured at the Dhaka Art Summit in February 2014, Hitman Gurung is exhibiting his new creations at the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) in Brisbane, Australia starting 21 November.

As with the event last year Gurung has made three huge paintings (2m x 1.5m) delving into the struggles of Nepali migrant workers, a subject that has consumed this sensitive artist since 2012.

Nepalis had a preview of the Brisbane exhibition at the Siddhartha Art Gallery as well as some of the artwork from the Dhaka event last year, I have to feed myself, my family and my country this week.

The dypthic Yellow Helmet and Gray House tells the story of Taju Gurung, a 16-year-old from Lamjung who was crushed under falling debris at a factory in Saudi Arabia where he was working. Next to the picture of the yellow helmet painted over rows of skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia, is a realistic painting representing Taju’s parents holding his passport. The ‘gray house’ refers to the one they built with the life insurance they got after their son’s death. 9.11am portrays a man sweating, wearing a yellow helmet and holding a football. A patchwork of photographs showing places destroyed by the earthquake are in the background. It was 9.11am in Qatar when the earthquake hit Nepal on 25 April.

This canvas alludes to the situation of many Nepalis building stadiums in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup who weren’t allowed to come back to their country to help the reconstruction of their devastated homes.

The Blank Frame depicts a body on a wheelchair with an empty photo frame in place of the head. In the background are watermark prints of what look like holiday pictures. The empty frame suggests this could be anybody, or that frames are used only to hold photographs of joyful moments (like in the background), but not pain.

The triptych Contemporary portrait of 75 districts shows three world maps drawn in red on newspapers. Passport photographs with scratches on the faces are depicted on the maps. This series powerfully implies that Nepalis may lose their identity as migrant workers (their passport are often confiscated by employers). This batch is rough, in contrast to the other paintings which are sharp and precise.

Gurung researches his subject matter, meets relatives of dead migrant workers to come up with his stories. His message is then conveyed visually and accompanied by long descriptions. I have to feed myself, my family and my country acts more like a documentary. Even if it is art, these large paintings are based on real stories with explicit captions that bring us face-to-face with the unbearable truths of individual stories.

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