YOUDHISTHIR MAHARJAN
Born 1984 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Lives and works in Kathmandu and Boston.
Youdhisthir Maharjan works with found materials and reclaimed text, engaging in laboriously repetitive and autopoietic processes—whether that be twisting newspaper into rope, methodically erasing all but certain words or letters from a book, obscuring a text with intricate patterns, cutting and re-aligning passages to form abstract shapes or highly repetitive printmaking. The artist treats books as readymade materials, where the author’s name, text, story, and information are irrelevant. The results are sculptural objects freed from the signifying purpose of words. Maharajan insists he doesn’t know the visual outcome of a page when he begins his process. “After a visit to numerous thrift stores, and sifting through a number of books, I pick them according to their title. That inspires the pattern, design, illustration, and the aesthetics. Then some pages speak to me, and some don’t,” he explains. His is an inquiry at the intersection of identity and anonymity, individual and collective, familiar and alien, that is invested in exploring the materiality of text.
Youdhisthir Maharjan, A Book of Silence, 2024, Half-burned reclaimed books, 49 x 32 x 6 in (124.46 x 81.28 x 15.24 cm)
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Youdhisthir Maharjan, A Book Of Silence, 2024, Incense burns on reclaimed book pages, 53 x 20.75 in (134.6 x 52.7 cm)
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Youdhisthir Maharjan, A Book Of Silence, 2024, Hand cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 26 x 56.5 in (66 x 143.5 cm)
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Youdhisthir Maharjan, A Book Of Silence, 2024, Hand cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 29.75 x 25 in (75.6 x 63.5 cm)
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Youdhisthir Maharjan, A Book Of Silence, 2024, Hand embroidered book strips on reclaimed book pages, 9.25 x 12.75 in (23.5 x 32.4 cm)
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Youdhisthir Maharjan, A Book Of Silence, 2024, Hand cut, reclaimed book pages, 9.25 x 12.75 in (23.5 x 32.4 cm)
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Youdhisthir Maharjan, Anantari Paryatna III: of Infinitie Space, 2011-2012, Etching on paper (created with 7640 passes through the printing press), 150 x 180 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, The Book of Joy, 2019, Hand-cut book pages, 8.75 x 5.5 x 1.25 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, Buddha's Brain, 2019, Hand-cut book pages, 9 x 6 x 0.75 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, Falling Dangerously in Love, 2017, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 10 x 5.75 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, The Last Song, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 8 x 5.5 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, The Waters Under the Earth, 2017, Acrylic on reclaimed book pages, 14.5 x 5.5 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, Broken Body Maps, 2019, Handwoven strips of reclaimed book pages, 14 x 12 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, In the Land of Blue Burqas, 2017, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 8.5 x 9.75 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, Forever, 2017, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 15 x 14 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, The Rising Nepal (12/19/2016), 2017, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed paper, 21.5 x 13.75 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, The Rising Nepal (1/25/2017), 2017, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed book pages, 21.5 x 13.75 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, The Rising Nepal (1/30/2017), 2017, Hand-cut text collage on reclaimed newspaper, 21.5 x 13.75 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, Book of Woman, 2019, Crocheted strips of reclaimed book pages, 57 x 4.5 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, No Women's Land, 2019, Crocheted strips of reclaimed book pages, 32.5 x 20 in
Youdhisthir Maharjan, Songs in Ordinary Time, 2016-2019, Handwoven reclaimed book pages, 20 x 10 in
Maharjan sat down with the Post’s Shranup Tandukar to discuss his relationship with language, his satisfaction in laborious monotony, and his opinion on personal art.
The works of Youdhi Maharjan and Monika Bravo are as different as the artists’ personalities yet exemplify these ideas, and the two share strong connections in their approaches to creativity and the meaning of art.
