Time of India, Chandigarh Times
08/21/2003 , By Vandana Shukla
Imaging Manna’s Images… After the Turmoil
“…THE atmosphere is not a perfume, it has not taste of the distillation”. The receiver of an artist’s mind, finely tuned to the surroundings, records the truth of its all. Whether it is the times of violence and turmoil or a message of hope hidden somewhere along the margins or the caim that follows. The atmosphere may not be distilled, but the artist’s response to the truth around him certainly is… to add finesse to reality. This has been evident in all works of city-based Diwan Manna, be it past or present.
In the past if Shore of the Unknown were throwing up t errible scenes of violence for Diwan Manna’s photographic eye to record, this time his vistual land guage has taken a U-turn, touching the other end of the shore. This language records a deeprooted resonace of deeper quest for harmony. In his latest photographic work titled After the Turmoil, the artist is trying to give a message of hope.
“There had been so much violence all around us at home and abroad. The media had been focusing on violence, whatever I read and saw impressed the mind. Though men were the victims of violence, women bore the brunt of all th is mindless killings that went on around us. This was the reason my entire series. Violence, had only women. I was watching television the other day where I saw an old woman being interviewed. She said she wasnot afraid of death, her fear was from life.” His photo creative works titled Violence recorded the violence of the times in its strakness.
The new series After the Turmoil tries to tap unrealized sources of ten-derness, fortitude and humanity, in men and women. Does Diwan think times have changed?
“Perhaps, I have come to a realization that it’s up to us to bring out the best or the worst in others,” he says. “Whenever I see a horror show or horror film (I never really see them, just the promos that keep popping up on the screen) I think that man was created in fearlessness. Today, even if you are not afraid, things are made to make you experience fear. This leaves little space for exploration of human sensitivity. I believe artists should also give a lead to society… earlier people needed to be told about violence around them. Now they need to be told to look at the positive side of life, to find hope in th is strange configuration cailed life,” he adds.
True to his words, his new series captures man and woman, complementing each other in quest for peace and harmony, with tree of life growing around them. He is taking this exhibition to the Palace in Paszkowka, Krakow, Poland.
