Far from the Trojan Horse of Virgil and Homer, Manu Singh’s wooden horse reminds us of the childhood playful charm, dreams, vigour and travails vis-a-vis the growing uncertainty, turbulence and mechanisation of the world we live in today. Her latest painting exhibition Wooden Horse-A Self-Portrait at New Delhi’s Shridharani Gallery showcases a feast of her figurative and surrealist art work, cognisant of the world around us and key human emotions. “The wooden horse has been an inspiration, my childhood companion, on which I can travel to various magical imaginary destinations,’’ she explains. “Wooden horse has all kinds of powers, it can fly, it can swim, it can do anything,’’ she adds. Her wooden horse is as free, as powerful, as unrestricted as P.B. Shelley’s the west wind! Yet he is as delicate and sweet as charming and blissful and as child-like and innocent, as it features in Gulzar’s rhyme, “Lakdi Ki Kaathi, Kaathi Pe Ghoda.’’
In Manu’s paintings, the wooden horse symbolises the self, the backdrop is at times, the sky, the ocean or even the earth, giving one a sense of vastness. She experiments with different media such as oil and oil on conte’ etc to produce the desired effects. Each of her paintings, is a communion between the two worlds – the evils around us and the magical solace. Her “Nailed Shadow” speaks of our being tied to a painful reality or an idea. She comments on how the human mind perceives a situation to be larger than what it really is. “Survivor – Two Worlds”, shows her excellence in the use of colour. It depicts two skies – a stormy one at the bottom and a calmer golden one on the top. It is really the merging of two separate worlds. This is an extension of “Rooted Boa”t which is a comment on how the world perceived and reacted to the migrant crisis of Europe in 2015 which led to a crisis, and as a result, some countries decided to shut their borders, causing a vast number of refugees to be displaced with no where to go for shelter .
An alumna of Triveni, under the guidance of renowned artist Rameshwar Broota, Manu Singh has widely participated in several art shows and her artworks are part of many private collections worldwide. Her paintings are thought provoking yet soft , soothing and lyrical. Each artwork has a beautiful social narrative which explores an elemental imaginary landscape.
Manu is weaving a beautiful string of narratives through her paintings which motivate us to refresh, relax, de-stress and live our life despite growing turbulence in our world .
