Between Documentary and Speculative: An Interview with Subash Thebe Limbu

In this continuing conversation with artist Subash Thebe Limbu, we explore the various material and mediatic negotiations involved in the movement of Indigenous Futurisms. We also dwell on the contentious relationship between art and activism in addressing the painful histories of colonisation. Talking about his early fascination for science and space travel, Limbu points to the harm caused by popular narratives of “anti-development” to indigenous communities, emphasising that “Indigeneity is not an antithesis to science and technology.”

As discussed in the first part of this interview, Adivasi Futurism is a useful lens through which to understand Limbu’s practice. The audio-visual work Parallax featuring Bhagat Subba (2019) for example, plays on the idea of an indigenous archive in a futuristic scenario. In the digitally rendered video, three-dimensional letters from the Yakthung script of the Limbu community float in space, while a voice speaks the language in the soundtrack. This voice is in fact a 1991 recording from the first album in the Limbu language by the artist Bhagat Subba. In Nepal, the recording and distribution of indigenous music was illegal before 1989. The suppression of indigenous languages can be traced back to 1768 when the Gorkha empire “unified” the different indigenous nations and small states into Nepal and declared Gorkha language as the language of the court. Much later, King Mahendra enforced a one language (ek bhasha) policy within the Panchayat system after 1960, pushing many indigenous languages into near extinction. Publishing and broadcasting in other languages was banned and prohibited until the 1990 Peoples’ Movement in Nepal. Embedded in such a context, Limbu’s practice looks at the relationships between science fiction and history—creating speculative fictions through engagements with documentary material and the Limbu community in Nepal.

_{(Featured Image: Video Still from Parallax featuring Bhagat Subba. 2019. Digitally Rendered Video, Three Minutes Forty Seconds.)}

Interview with Anisha Baid, 11th December 2020.