In an attempt to present history in an interesting way, artists are coming up with smart concepts and ideas. The recent example is an exhibition by Manish Pushkale, where he uses water sourced from different ponds, rivers, seas and oceans around the world and artefacts of a lost civilisation. By Shrabasti Mallik
We are living in an age where almost anything and everything can be captured through the lens of a camera and saved for future generations. It is also a time when artists are reinventing the subjects and inspiration of their artworks.
There are many artists who depict history in the form of mythology or legends but there are a few artists who are coming up with interesting ways to depict the past. like artist Manish Pushkale, who is trying to recreate the experience of what the past must have felt or been like on his canvas.
Pushkale’s passion for history has taken him all around the world. It is the physical act of being at a place of historic interest, that gives him solace and fills him with nostalgia. He tries to imagine what the place must have been like in its prime, how the people might have been, how the place flourished and why did it come to an end. He then tries to recreate that experience through his brush.
But his paintings are neither narrative nor figurative — they are abstract. “I do not want to paint history because other people have already dona that in the form of mythology or epics. I try to feel the place and interpret it in my own way. It is beyond rational reality,” he explains.
As he toured the deserts of Egypt, the Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro, the Chinese, Mayan and the Mesopotamian civilisations, he realised that all good civilisations live through their residues. They determine the notion of time, he says. “The best part of these elements of history is that they do not chase time. In the past, people lived in space and created their own time while today the modern man is too busy creating his own space,” he adds.
Art to him is not just about applying colours, it is about enquiring about the lost elements of history. His paintings have their origins in the artefacts of the civilisations that he has come across. “It is not about what I have seen but rather it is a form of archeo-scribes that we find all around us. I try to achieve the rustic form through my art rather than load it on a society which already has its own set of pre-conceived notion about history,” he says.
According to him, his thoughts are derived from conviction. He feels that the present day is all about visiting civilisation thorough museums where everything is perfectly documented. “But every place has an essence and it cannot be captured through the lens. If is for people to feel and experience, that is why my artworks are abstract because I do not like to preach,” he shares.
His collection titled Museum of Unknown chronicles his adventures, thoughts and feelings of the historic places that he has visited. The collection is his little attempt to create his own civilisation. He compares himself to author Orhan Pamuk when he says, “In his book Museum of Innocence, Pamuk records the Turkish culture, Istanbul between 1975 and 1984 and the people of that time. He was trying to build a place of his own with the book, like I am doing with my collection.”
Pushkale uses water sourced from ponds, rivers, seas and oceans for his works. “We exist between waters. It is so intricately related to life. It has different values to different people,” says the artist.