After spending three months abroad, I was yearning to be back. There was no one in particular for whom I wanted to return. Perhaps I was missing the familiarity. I wanted to be alone for fifteen days, to recollect, and plan a future strategy to encounter and to respond to previous experiences. I wanted to come back, develop my films, see the images and savor them.”
That was the city based photographer Diwan Manna craving to return to the country after exhibiting his works at Dewsbury Museum in Yorkshire, England. After a successful exhibition, Diwan has come back with plenty of experiences which will keep him busy for the next couple of months.
Fascinated by new places, he says, “The quest for the unseen, to be more adventurous has always held a special fascination for me”. What is it which makes people run after the unknown? Why do men long to leave the security of familiar surrounding and head for the unexplored? What curiosity leads them to risk pain, anonymity, even oblivion? The questions interest him and he is on his own quest – looking for answers.
The recent visit was part of the continuation of the earlier search of understanding the European way of being. “How does somebody from the East respond to the Western way of existence?” His insight is evident in his prize winning portfolio submitted to the All India Fine Art and Crafts Society.
This year his interest veered to the European wear, the way they conduct themselves particularly outside the Louver and the Centre de Pompidou. It is different from the way they behave outside these places – even different from the way they are inside.” I spent a lot of time roaming the streets to respond to the texture. The streets have their own story to tell – their own culture. How do the feet respond to the road and the juxtaposition with the moving machine, which is an important aspect of their life?” Even while in Amsterdam, the “study” was the same. Here it was on the effect of billboards and publicity posters on the public and of course, their responses at bus stops and railways stations. He continued with this work throughout his travel in London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and Washington.
A graduate of the Chandigarh College of Art, Diwan’s work has a great deal of theatricality in it – a result of his childhood association with the Ramlila Productions in the town of Bareta, Punjab. The graphic quality of his work is seen in the textural quality of his images. The works displayed at the recent exhibition are part of his earlier works in which he uses the crumbling walls from the painting of another city artist Raj Jain, a painter. “The human figures through gestures, exclamations and movement embody my stirrings of horror as the tiny voice within us grows stiller and smaller.”
Diwan was invited to exhibit at the Dewbury Museum by the galleries officer, Helen Robinson. “I first came across Diwan Mann’s images on a postcard. Having no previous knowledge of his work, my first reaction was admiration and interest. AS it became clearer that Diwan was a photographer based in India whose work was currently touring Britain, it seemed appropriate to programme this work for the Art Gallery at Dewsbury Museum.”
Diwan, who is inextricably linked with Chandigarh, is already preparing for his next exhibition, “Waking the Dead”, to be held sometimes in mid 1997 in the United Kingdom. Besides being bold and innovative this new work is very different to his earlier themes of alienation series.
