Artist and photographer Manisha Gera Baswani invites Arthy Muthanna Singh into her art-laden home and speaks to her of life and muses
Artist Manisha Gera Baswani’s latest obsession, or should one say compulsion, is feathers. Has been for a while. A large glass bowl full of them, collected by friends, neighbours and even her driver, sits pretty in her living room. Everyone in Central Park, Gurugram knows! And they have found their way into her work — large watercolours of detailed feathers or intricately woven plumage will make up her next installation series. Fabulous, awe-inspiring, large.
At the time that the family shifted residence to Central Park five years ago, Manisha was going through a low phase in her life, aggravated by two bereavements in the family. A creative block kept her from painting. “I saw myself picking up feathers, while I was on my morning walks,” she reminiscences. “It is a beautiful experience to walk around my condominium. I was subjected to the smells, not just the colours, of the flowers. My home has a lot of the condominium in it. It is almost like the outside of my life is inside my house.”
The feathers sat in her studio, until one fine day she saw herself picking one up from the glass jar, putting it next to the white paper, and painting it. And the next feather… and the next…. “In hindsight, I feel that this was my way of picking up the pieces of my life that I had thought I had lost. This is only in hindsight — I am not an artist who predetermines her work. Or life. That work for me was the starting point to getting back to my positive self. And that is how my next series began. The multitasking that we do — it has been about the shifting roles we play in a day — and the white spaces we need, to be unstructured. It is very tough. You have to switch off and switch on and switch off again. And somehow we women manage to do it! And those of us are happier human beings. I think I am.”
Denne historien er fra July 2016-utgaven av Verve.
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Denne historien er fra July 2016-utgaven av Verve.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Making Amends
This generation’s penchant for thoughtless consumption gets Madhu Jain roiled up, and she wonders if nature is getting its own back for our missteps…
Diamonds With Provenance
In keeping with the company’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility, Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chief sustainability officer at Tiffany & Co. and chairman and president at The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, enlightens Shirin Mehta on the efforts that make the jewellery giant an industry leader in transparency
SARTORIAL ECONOMICS
Sisters Tashi and Tara Mitra demonstrate to Akanksha Pandey how deviating from the mainstream can bend the way we think, live and dress
NOTES TO SELF
An anthropomorphized tiger’s perspective, a viscerally worded futuristic interpretation of loss, a critique of performative activism, a meta reflection on the earth’s crises. Told through different lenses, Janaki Lenin, Indrapramit Das, Keshava Guha and Roshan Ali’s stories — written exclusively for Verve — attempt to make sense of the fraught reality that we exist in today
The Eternal Optimist
As Generation X and xennials grapple with fully transitioning to conscious living, young millennials and Generation Z are leading the charge to reverse human-caused environmental damage. Sahar Mansoor, founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based zero-waste social enterprise Bare Necessities, has a simple overarching philosophy: consume less and stay positive. Verve gets deeper into the mindset of the action-oriented earth advocate
Redemption SONGS
Indian music festivals have been demonstrating a refreshing sense of responsibility in terms of their ecological impact. Interacting with stakeholders who strive to make these large-scale events greener, Akhil Sood investigates the reasons behind the improved attitudes of audiences and the increase in corporate support.
earth hour
Crafted using nature’s elements, these dials draw inspiration from the many heterogeneous materials and hues around us.Verve turns its lens onto a mesmerising few
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Children are holding adults accountable for both the grim future they are facing and the toll this is taking on their mental health. Madhumita Bhattacharyya initiates conversations with families of young climate activists and observes the extent to which parenting has changed in the face of catastrophe
NATURAL JUSTICE
Most of us are only just waking up to the urgency of climatic action. When the stakes are so high, what can individual action solve? Mridula Mary Paul, an environmental policy expert, is proof of the tenacity needed to effect systemic change. It’s not glamorous, and the rewards are few and far between, but that doesn’t stop her from aiming big, finds Anandita Bhalerao
Along For The Ride
Navigating Indian streets as a woman is hard enough. But what is it like while riding a bicycle? Bengaluru-based Shreya Dasgupta, a regular cyclist, speaks to five urban women about the pros and cons of this increasingly popular means of transport.
