Hampshire Alums Yahui Liu 21F and Cherlynn Zhang 18F Shape a Co-Creation Space in Nepal

Jivanta Kalalaye (“A Living Space for Creation”) is an artist residency in Bhaktapur, Nepal, conceptualized and managed by Hampshire alums Yahui Liu 21F and Cherlynn Zhang 18F. Through co-learning with the Newari community, the space offers an array of programs, such as traditional ceramics, the relationships between soundscapes and architecture, performance art, anthropological architecture, community engagement via art, and visual arts, among them papermaking, screen printing, and woodcarving.

Liu and Zhang discussed creating their own art program together for years before taking the plunge, and decided to base the project in Nepal as an “active political, art, and cultural center.” Through Jivanta Kalalaye, the friends seek to answer questions such as: “What can art do to bridge borders and foster deeper communication and relationships? How can we reimagine our connection with the earth? And how can we create a mycelium-like network of communities that learn from one another and carry ancestral wisdom across landscapes?”

Liu describes her Hampshire experience as “transformative.” After she transferred from a Chinese university, she says, “I took all the courses I was interested in, no matter what department they belonged to. My Hampshire advisors and mentors—Professor of Architecture and Design Thom Long, Professor of Theater Design Peter Kallok, Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies Noah Romero, Five College Professor Emerita of Film and Video Baba Hillman, and Associate Professor of Music Junko Oba — all told me ‘You can.’ The keyword of my Hampshire life was possibility.” 

Zhang says she felt an “instant connection” with Hampshire upon arriving on campus, calling the experience “an initiation into the ever-unfolding process of kenosis — emptying the self, unlearning, and opening to renewal.” She credits Amherst College Professors Lorne Falk and Heidi Gilpin and Hampshire Professor of Comparative Literature and Visual Studies Jennifer Bajorek and Professor Jean-Marie Casbarian as beloved mentors and remembers the “heart-to-heart connections” she made at Hampshire amid the school’s 2019 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. 

Calling Liu her “parallel being,” Zhang says that “during that critical time, we thought we should come together to reflect our relationship with the earth, and to co-create—make art, build momentum, and cultivate an inner sanctuary.”

Now, she says, “what matters is the union of being and action, and it all goes back to Hampshire’s motto: Non satis scire. To know is not enough.”