About the Artist:
Tenzin D Lama (b. 1989) is a New York and Kathmandu based curator, self-taught artist, art writer, and art consultant. Lama studied Anthropology and East Asian Language and Cultures at Columbia with a focus in Visual Anthropology and Tibetan Studies. She received her MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Arts with a focus in curation, gallery management, and art valuation. Currently she curates and writes as a freelancer. Her practice in curating and generating works that delve into both the past and the present contextually and materially has a strong footing in her extensive research -oriented practice.
Artist Statement:
Vanishing Voices was a project I began in 2011 during my sophomore year in college. The goal was to salvage oral traditions in my native village in Humla called Nhyinba villages, in far west Nepal bordering Tibet.
I’d like to display what has come of this field work and my creative take on recontexualizing oral traditions in the current day ever eroding fabric of living traditions.
At the core of the curation lies the transcribed lyrics of various Nhyinba Songs that are performed in our traditional rituals and events, and a scripture from a shaman household preserving age-old marriage songs with invocation songs.
Surrounding these lyrics are obfuscated Nhyinba people portraits inspired by my visits in Nhyinba villages. Ode to the pacifist is a piece dedicated to many deuda singers of Humla who sang to pacify the civil conflict in Karnali region. With the background of garbunya textile, everyday wrap worn by Humli women. The face draws from Alison Saar’s portraits whereas the composition evokes Aristide Maillol’s “the river” sculpture. The obfuscated portraits of the carrier of these vanishing tradition is shown in its existential light belonging in a fragile social milieu.
