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What do you want to know: Earlier this month, Hyundai Motor Group announced Nepalese artist Subash Thebe Limbu as the recipient of the Grand Prix of 5th Annual VH Awards—the premier prize for new media artists in Asia. Alongside the works of the four finalists, Zike He, Riar Rizaldi, Su Hui-Yu and zzyw (sic), the piece by Subash Thebe Limbu Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous (2023) had its first screening at virtual awards ceremony. Each of the finalists received grants to produce new artwork, as well as the opportunity to participate in an online residency program organized by Eyebeam. As the Grand Prize winner, Subash Thebe Limbu received an additional scholarship. Beyond the initial screening, the works of the five finalists will be screened at museums and cultural destinations around the world, including HMG Vision Hall in Yongin, South Korea; Elektra Virtual Museum in Montreal, Canada; Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, and Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hyundai Motor’s Artistic Director, DooEun Choi, said of this iteration of the award, “With the 5th VH Award, Hyundai Motor Group celebrates the diversity and creativity of media artists around the world with an interest in the Asian context. and share the group’s vision of uniting for a better future.These emerging artists have broadened our perspectives on the future of humanity and enabled us to blur boundaries through their distinctive cross-cultural practices.
About the artist: Originally from eastern Nepal, Subash Thebe Limbu (b. 1981) is one of the indigenous Tibeto-Burman people of Yakthung (Limbu). Working through sound, film, music, performance, painting and podcasts, the artist’s multidisciplinary practice draws heavily on sociopolitical issues and themes of migration, climate change, autochthony and speculative fiction. Based between Kathmandu and London, Subash Thebe Limbu received his BFA from Middlesex University in 2011 and his MFA from Central Saint Martins in 2016. Drawing on his own background and experiences, the artist envisions new worlds and timelines, creating “science fiction through an indigenous lens”. .” Storytelling and storytelling are central elements of their work, inviting the viewer to consider varying futures and to question the trajectory and understanding of time within the context of culture.
Subash Thebe Limbu, Grand Prize winner of the 5th VH Award. Courtesy of the artist.
Why we love it: Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous (2023) presents a hypothetical scenario in which two indigenous people from two different eras – one a 16th century Yakthung warrior and the other an astronaut or time traveler from the future – have a conversation. By discussing their respective temporal contexts and their places within them, viewers are given the opportunity to reflect on their own milieu and position in the space-time continuum. Commenting on the 14:51 minute film, Subash Thebe Limbu said, “This work plays with the idea that time is not something rigid but ductile or weaving, which opens up questions such as how we might want to weave the future. The film offers the opportunity to examine the role we, as individuals and as a collective, have in shaping the future and to consider how our actions – or inaction – may ultimately shape the trajectory of our current deadlines. Using time as a central thematic and narrative element allows Subash Thebe Limbu to craft an open proposition about the malleability of the future.
See images of Subash Thebe Limbu, Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous (2023) below.
Subash Thebe Limbu, always from Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous (2023). Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group VH Award.
Subash Thebe Limbu, always from Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous (2023). Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group VH Award.
Subash Thebe Limbu, always from Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous (2023). Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group VH Award.
Learn more about the VH Award presented by Hyundai Motor Studio here.
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