Hulk Bahadur and Barbie Maicha

Usually a venue for contemporary Nepali art, the latest exhibition at the Siddhartha Art Gallery at Baber Mahal Revisited is unconventional in both form and substance.

The exhibits are digital prints depicting characters from Marvel and DC Comics like The Hulk and Captain America, but on bicycles wearing dhaka topi, red tika and jamara, ready to celebrate Dasain in the streets of Thamel. Designer Disneys wearing Nepali costumes in the city’s landmarks, and there are even  Ronaldo and Messi wearing dhaka topi.

“I chose international characters because they are globally recognised icons, and I wanted to showcase Nepal’s cultural heritage sites,” explained artist Sunny Shakya, who started out as a sculptor, but switched to toygraphy, combing toys and photography. He got the idea when he took a picture of toy key rings with the background of Bhaktapur. People liked his work and he came up with more toys and more settings, combining his photography skills with knowledge of culture and sculpting.

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This is an unusual way to feature Nepali culture, but taking photographs of Barbie dolls draped in Hakupatasi, Super heroes in Nepali caps, and Joker playing the near-extinct Nepali string instrument, the arbajo.   

The photographs divide the exhibition into sections: Spiderman and Batman fly kites with Spidey’s web in place of string in the section with a Dasain theme. There is a Hulk and Batman series with a little story of a fun love triangle. Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean poses on a boat in Phewa Lake where he is the Pirate of Pokhara instead. Super villain Thanos carries a doko collecting grass in Ghandruk, and has obviously given up trying to eliminate half the world’s population. Aquaman protests the Guthi Bill in front of Rani Pokhari and Spiderman in front of Tribhuvan University.  

“I try to make pictures meaningful,” Shakya explains, pointing to a photo of Hulk wearing a Nepali cap and waving the national flag with a background of people demonstrating against the Guthi Bill at The Mandala recently.  

Shakya also used names such as Hulk Bahadur or Hulk ‘Cha’, Barbie maicha, Wonder Woman is Wonder Kanchi, Captain America is Captain Nepal. Thor holds a trisul instead of his hammer.  

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“I have been sculpting for 15 years, but the last eight months working on these photographs is the happiest I have been, and I have gained much more recognition,” says Shakya, adding that the plans to do more photo stories to promote Nepal’s ethnic attire and promote tourism through his photography.  

Toygraphy by Sunny Shakya

Siddhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited

Until 24 July