Self-realisation and the changing portrait of man

SCIENCE AND ART

Artist Manush John has a fascination for human anatomy. He has no answer when asked ‘why’. 

“I myself don’t know what makes me inclined towards the subject in particular,” says John. He takes a pause and continues, “Probably as an artist I believe it’s my fundamental right to know about people, to understand their construction and to review the things they are capable of doing,” he says. The artist has displayed a series of his works on this particular theme at the ‘Dialogue with the Self’ exhibition at The Portret Project, Vasant Vihar. 

His artwork titled ‘Enquiry with the Anatomy’ breaks the contemporary notion of artwork. “I wanted to create the appearance of a person in digital format. I realised it is difficult to do so. But following my aspiration I wanted to represent the changing portrait of man. It is self-realisation for me as well,” says John in a curious tone. 

But another artist, Prasannakumar, believes in layering of the subject in an attempt to penetrate beyond the known. “Layered subject consists of self-interrogation where you experience of the self in existence with difficulties. It is these layers that revolve around the self and socially constructed bureaucratic bodies amidst us,” he says.

Almost all the artists 

participating in this exhibition- Ramachandran N, Anamika V, Avijit Mukherjee, Naveen Kumar, Aishwaryan K, Venugopal Reddy, Manush John, Sahaya Sharma, Pallav Chander, Kiran Thulsi, Umashankar Venkatapathy and Surekha have explored themselves through their work.  It creates an immense sense of mystery ranging from the poetic to the dark. Every artist carries with them a certain amount of preconceived notions and prejudices which reflect in their artwork. These psychological portraits provoke an exchange of dialogue by articulating these visualised ideas.  According to the curator Anirudh Chari, the aim of this exhibition is to express psychological biographies through creative imagery.  

“This can be done by encrypting information about the sitter, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unconsciously creating works, which are, layered explorations of the self,” says Chari. 

The founder of The Portret Project, Sakhshi Mahajan, says, “The theme of the show and the artists’ works bring to my mind the concept of the ‘Dialogical Self’ developed by the Dutch psychologist, Hubert Hermans. 

His theory looks at the self as a society and the mind to imagine different opinions of participants in an internal dialogue, hence being multi-voiced. I believe that the show will highlight notions of this enthralling perception of the psychologist.” The exhibition will be on view from October 30 till November 2, Bakheda in Saidulajab, from 11 am to 7 pm.