Objects are brought to life, life is objectified and both object and life are interlinked in the latest exhibition at Gallery Five Forty Five which features three artists, Prathibha Nambiar, Manush C.J. and Manju Mohanadas.
Titled “Photo Synthesis”, the exhibition features “visual experiments” in digital art curated by Lina Vincent Sunish.
The two subjects in Prathibha Nambiar’s mixed media works are: a coconut and a pine cone resulting in two series of works titled “Coconut” and “Pine”. In both series, Prathibha plays around with the images of the object and its forms.
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She arranges and rearranges identical images of the object, sometimes creating new forms out of them that resemble forms in nature such as flowers or butterflies or forms of objects found in everyday life. Sometimes she also overlaps the images in transparent layers to create new shapes.
“I've always been attracted to the ‘ordinary’. When I say ordinary I mean the objects we use or see almost everyday but fail to notice due to their perpetual presence. In my paintings I've tried to make these everyday objects the protagonists and bring forth their innate beauty,” explains Prathibha. “What my work tries to do is give these objects a space of their own, a space for them to perform and shine. By making them the protagonists of my work, they are no longer the neglected objects that they once were. I am trying to bring out the simplistic beauty of each object by playing with their forms. All I want is for people to appreciate the object's form and its potentialities.”
Manju’s series of works juxtaposes the personal landscape of memories and the geographical landscape in a way that links them both, where one influences the other. She does this by placing together images of a palm, which represents her personal landscape and connecting it with the background which appears to be, quite literally, maps made of lines or digital or satellite maps.
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Meanwhile Manush C.J. has brought out fascinating images of human figures. He studies the female anatomy in various postures, working with digital art to create images that are sometimes sculptural, sometimes digitally painted and sometimes photographed.
“The work starts off as an analysis of anatomy. It began two years ago while I was working on drawings, I realized didn’t understand what holds form. So I studied bones and muscles and their structure and it led me to posture,” says Manush, a student at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. “Postures of figures without the façade of clothes or speech reveal something about their character and when we isolate figures from their context, they become ambiguous and surreal.”
“Photo Synthesis” will be on view until March 5 at Gallery Five Forty Five, 545, 6 main, 4 cross, Indira Nagar Stage II. For details, contact 9036001081.