To mark the 108th International Women’s day, the Nepal Cultural Museum organised an exhibition of photographs at the premises of Nepal Art Council in Babrmahal in the Capital.

The show features over 500 portraits of women of historical and cultural importance. Subjects of the portraits range from mythic and historical figures to the contemporary.

Portraits of Sita, Bhrikuti, CNN hero Anuradha Koirala, writer Jhamak Kumari Ghimire, and President Bidhya Devi Bhandari make up only a fraction of the exhibit which is in effect an index of Nepali women, distinguished in history as well as current events.

For the purposes of the exhibit, pictures on display are organised in three categories—the pioneering, the distinguished, and the courageous.

The exhibition also includes a site specific installation by artists Simran Shrestha, Sakshi Gorkhali, Astitwa Adhikari, Sukrita Karkee, Anukriti Aayusha Gargi, and Sagoon. Pictures of various women of social and cultural significance along with fragments of conversations with them are strung up on interlacing threads—almost web-like.

The contrivance is such that the viewers are forced to approach the piece with caution and it is hard not to be tangled in it.

 According to Gorkhali, making viewers navigate through the web of personalities is a functional aspect of the piece as it recapitulates the way we navigate a conversation—a kind of mutual entanglement.

The exhibit will run until March 14.