Part of POA Opening Studio: Contemporary Indigeneity
Untamable Dankini, Fireside Chat, and Tika Chhedna Angana: Celebrating Tharu Tattoo Culture and Tradition
For many, dissociation becomes a survival mechanism in the face of burnout and exhaustion — feelings that emerge not only from battling oppressive forces but also from navigating conflicts with loved ones, communities, and within ourselves. In an endless struggle, where can care find its place?
As part of "Untamable Dankini," an interactive / sharing session crafted by Per°Form Fellow Sheelasha Rajbhandari, participants are invited to rest, play, and reconnect through sensory experiences. This gathering encourages an intentional slowing down, engaging with colors, textures, and grounding rituals as acts of resistance. It opens space to acknowledge and explore kinship, non-binary, and fluid forms of being. "Dankini" embodies a range of meanings, from feminine enlightened spirits to demoness, often used derisively today against women who defy societal norms. By exploring the multifaceted nature of Dankini, the conversations aim to weaken and deconstruct imposed limitations.
3–5pm: Untamable Dankini — an interactive session with Sheelasha Rajbhandari.
6–7.45pm: Drop by a Fireside Chat with the artists from Nepal, moderated by Artistic Director Ong Keng Sen.
7.45–9pm: Tika Chhedna Angana: Celebrating Tharu Tattoo Culture and Tradition.
End the night with the rich tradition of tika body marking, an Indigenous art form of the Tharu women of the Tarai region. "Tika Chhedna Angana” (“a garden of body markings") was a unique gathering in March 2024, in Bardiya, Nepal. In Bardiya, elders, artists, knowledge bearers of this corporeal history shared stories of joy, friendship and sisterhood, filled with laughter and pain, and witnessed the rewriting of stories with ink and blood.
Sheelasha Rajbhandari is an artist and curator based in Kathmandu. Her works draw upon an embodied and speculative lineage of femininities to question the positioning of women and fluid beings and decentre patriarchal structures that perpetuate cycles of industrial extraction and individual exhaustion. For her, art-making is about making space for collective action that recomposes notions of Indigeneity, gender, sexuality, worth, and productivity.
Sheelasha is co-curator for Tamba project at 11th Asia Pacific Triennial 2024. She is one of the curators for 17th Biennale Jogja 2023 and Colomboscope 2024 and Kathmandu Triennale 2077, Nepal Pavilion at Venice Biennale (2022), ‘Garden of Ten Seasons’ at Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (2022) and ’12 Baishakh,’ Bhaktapur (2015). Her textile installation was exhibited at Kunstinstituut Melly (2023), Museum of Art and Design; New York (2022), Footscray Art Center; Melbourne (2022). Rajbhandari crafted the Dankini initiative, which prioritises rest, play, and sensory pleasure while delving into the complex interplay between identity and structural forces. She is also the co-founder of ArTree Nepal, an artist collective and Kalā Kulo, an arts initiative.
Images courtesy of Sheelasha Rajbhandari.