National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

EXPOSITION

Familiar Sounds

The bell, as usual, dominates artist Manish Shrestha’s works of art this year too

By DEWAN RAI

Bells are one of the most familiar items to all people. Human beings have great affinity to the bells since a long time ago. But the bells symbolize awareness in the paintings by Manish Shrestha. At his solo exhibition under the theme “Sound of Intimacy” displayed at Siddhartha Art Gallery, the artist depicts the sounds that are most recognizable.

Shrestha's Painting

There are altogether 34 paintings on display and the bell appears in each of them under various shapes with different effects of colors. Squares, pyramids, clouds and circles are other objects that can be found in his paintings. They are all symbolical, asserts the artist.

“Overlapping squares depict intimacy and strength,” says Shrestha. “Likewise, pyramid stands for optimism, circle for eternity and the cloud for freedom.”

The bell is wordless speech, stronger than human speech. The sounds of bells invoke the spiritual being in human. At different moods and modes of life, the sound of bell always acts as something that alerts people. The bells at shrines clang to convey ones inner wishes to the God. Manish draws the bells from Mangal Bazar, his place of birth to convey the message of peace to all Nepalis. “We need peace to live. It is possible only through unity,” said he.

To understand his work we must begin from the frame of his canvas. The pieces of frames are joined together to refer to unity. The shapes of the bells appear on texture in some paintings. The colors, sizes and shadings of bells vary according to moods, represented by the overlapping squares of different colors and texture.

Shrestha, 25, chose a bell, which we can relate to spirituality, to articulate his feelings. Moreover, nine dots or circles in his paintings represent the eternity. The bells flying above the cloud suggests the call of freedom and the optimistic surrounding is created by the symbol of pyramids.

“No, it is more focused on intimacy and unity,” he declines to be called spiritual. But for ordinary viewers the paintings seem to possess spiritual quality.

Shrestha, a graduate in Fine Arts from J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, has already exhibited his works in Kathmandu. This is his second solo exhibition in the town.

Barbara Hewitt, director of British Council inaugurated the exhibition on September 7. “The bell in my cultural context, could be announcement, prayers, invasion or even death,” she mused.

Addressing the function Sangita Thapa, the curator, commented, “ Precisely we can say that Manish’s canvases reflect his joie de vivre and keen optimism even during our nation’s troubled and traumatized times.” The exhibition will continue till September 26.