Visithra manikam

Soul’s Garden (2020)

Silk flowers.13Wx3Hx7D (inches)

Artist’s statement

During the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, Malaysia, like many other countries, imposed a strict national curfew following a government order for everyone to remain at home at all times.

The need to personalize our surroundings has deep psychological roots. It is a means for achieving and balancing one’s inner and outer harmony. Under imposed lockdown for months, whether from fits of boredom or attempts to keep themselves cheerful, the society of the time gave rise to a widespread passion for redecoration of homes. Demand for decorative items and artificial flowers shot up during this time.

A hundred years later, we carry on this legacy, whether consciously or unconsciously, by wearing lush, floral decorations on our masks, though not everyone remembers why.

About the Artist

Visithra Manikam is a self-taught artist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her work explores themes of human behavior through the lens of psychology, eastern philosophy and symbolism. She also focuses on subjects such as racism, colorism, feminism and social issues. Her socially conscious art has twice ben recognized with the Redline Artworks Global award.

Ms. Manikam has exhibited in group and solo shows in Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. She has upcoming exhibitions in Malaysia and Indonesia. Her work is in collections in India, Japan and South Korea.

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, Visithra was surrounded by boxes, caught between places in the middle of a move. The moment restrictions were eased, she moved, unpacked, and decorated her new home. During that process, she rediscovered her love for artificial flowers.

Artist Feature

Visithra Manikam was our featured artist for January 19-25, 2021. Read on for an in-depth interview about her work and her practice.

10 questions

1. Looking at some of your work in online galleries, you have a significant presence as a painter and your subject matter often includes themes of the feminine and of societal constraints that women are expected to follow; but in your paintings the constraints cannot contain the feminine. These figures emit a sense of undeniable power. Can you discuss this aspect of your work a bit?

I’m glad that you noticed this. Traditionally artists, especially male artists, have portrayed the women in their paintings as frail, fragile women who need to be saved. I wanted women to look at my paintings, recognise themselves and feel empowered. The women in my paintings are strong, defiant, free of social constraints and do not care about the constraints society feels women must adhere to.

2.  Often in your paintings that depict the feminine power, you include images of eyes that are positioned in a variety of ways to indicate various meanings. Can you discuss the role the motif of the eye, or multiple eyes, plays in your work?

Most of my paintings use Asian symbolism to tell stories and messages that I want to share. I view the eyes as the window to the soul. In many Asian cultures it equates protection against evil. At the same time, eyes symbolise a need to delve deeper into things/ thoughts to create a better understanding or to feel a sense of awakening. Interestingly, over the course of showing these arts, often I come across people who equate eyes to being watched due to the teachings they have learnt, and are afraid of the paintings. Children, on the other hand — who have yet to be moulded by any teaching — are drawn to my paintings.

3.  You mention in your statement that you are concerned with racism and colorism in your work. Can you say more about how these issues arise in Malaysia and what matters most to you that people will take away from looking at your art? What would you like people to know about the history or present reality of racism and colorism in Malaysia?

A huge section of Indian-origin Malaysians were brought to work in Malaysia by the British in the 1880s to work in rubber plantations. As one of the smallest racial groups, we face discrimination from both the private and government sectors in terms of opportunities, jobs, housing and more. Discrimination over generations has left many families stuck in a cycle of poverty and many are unable to come out of it.

This pandemic has actually set many families back decades, as Indians are often the first to be let go and the last to be hired. I created the anti-racism series as a lighthearted series to show that if we took out the features and skin colour away, the only thing different about us was our culture and traditional clothing.

Similarly, colourism is a huge problem here. In a country predominantly made of brown-skinned people, colourism and the preference for fairer skin continues to be a big problem that is exacerbated by the whitening beauty product industry. Colourism unfairly places lighter-skinned people as superior or a benchmark for beauty. A darker skinned person is equated to be bad, not beautiful, untrustworthy. It doesn’t help that our popular culture, from the art industry to the entertainment and fashion sectors, tends to focus on fair-skinned people and the whitening of people in their work. Worst of all, we often have the beauty industry equating dark as ugly to sell whitening beauty products in their advertisements. Despite having been here for more than 100 years, very few dark-skinned people are featured in fashion.

So I use my art to paint only dark-skinned people in various shades to break the effects of colourism and the negative stereotypes in the hopes to reduce colourism through visual representation.

4. To lead forward from the last question, what role do the concepts of intersectionality play in your work? How do you engage with it?

Up until 2019, my art has focused on women. I felt more inclined to paint women and to focus on issues I was passionate about. Even in my anti-racism series, the male figure was a rare occurrence. However, I don’t make art that accuses one gender. Instead I focus on issues such as patriarchy, a set of beliefs that are absorbed and imposed on society by all genders who subscribe to it.

In 2020, I started painting art related to politics and the people’s suffering, in a totally different style. In this series I expose and investigate issues amplified by the pandemic; from job losses, suicide, the discriminative working conditions of migrant workers, and how political maneuvering and hapless governing is severely impacting us. The blocky nature of the figures make them seem male, but I would like to see them as genderless abstract figures representing the people. I have, however, painted the politicians as male as they make up more than 80% of the cabinet at the moment.

5.  On your Instagram page, you discuss a classical dance form Bharathanatiyam, saying, “As a student of classical dance, to know that my access to learning and practicing dance is a direct consequence of the hereditary artists (the art form was passed down matrilineally) losing their right over the same is crucial unlearning that dancers must acknowledge.” I am interested to learn more about the role this dance form plays in your life and how it connects to your artistic practice.

So far, the art form itself hasn’t played any role in my art. Relearning the history of the art form focused my awareness on the ways patriarchy and colonisation has changed my culture, and the way women are brought up today as opposed to what they were taught in the past. The concept of modesty and the shaming of the female body was introduced into the Indian culture by the Mughals and the British. From our sexuality, to the way we dress and move, we are scrutinized and, as women, are judged as lesser beings. The LGBTQ+ community receives a lot of hatred. Women’s rights are qualified by the patriarchy. These problems still are strong forces in conservative society.

I have been questioning and relearning the lessons I was taught growing up in a conservative-progressive family. While they believed women should study and build careers, we were simultaneously required to adhere to a long list of rules to govern our moral conduct based on patriarchy beliefs. This is one of the reasons my women are mostly painted naked. I want to normalise body acceptance and the female body and push back on the notion that clothes define a woman’s worth.

While we are making strides, it’s interesting to note that many feminist women’s ideas about womens’ rights are conditional to what they deem acceptable social conduct. Younger women who stand up against harassment, or who are redefining the terms of consent, are told not to play victims and to stop airing their dirty laundry in public. So we really have a long way to go.

6. Your mask features an elaborate floral arrangement that extends seven inches from the face, creating a sense of the human entwining with the vegetal. Several of your paintings also signify the relation of the human to flowers or plants. Is there an essential link of power between the human and the vegetal, or the woman and the floral?

Nature plays a huge role in Asian symbology. We believe nature teaches us things . It represents our need to grow and transform. For example, the lotus is a motif in many of my paintings. Across Southeast Asia, India, and Japan, the lotus is a sacred object. The lotus symbolises knowledge, abundance, wealth, sexuality and spirituality. It has the ability to rise above the mud and bloom and symbolises rising above one’s challenges and the power to change one’s circumstances.

The use of flowers in the mask refers to the human reaction to being trapped indoors in strict lockdown. People responded by redecorating their homes, and the demand for flowers and indoor plants increased sharply. The need to change your surroundings in a stressful situation is often a coping mechanism to have a sense of control in one aspect of your life.

7.  Let’s talk a little about influences. Who has influenced and supported you in your work, and whom have you influenced in turn?

My art is influenced by the Modern Indian style. Jamini Roy is considered by many to be the father of modern Indian art. Jamini rebelled to find an Indian identity to his art that started with the wave of nationalism as India began seeking independence from the British. I am inspired by Sunayani Devi, who sought inspiration from Indian traditional art. Soon, more artists followed and it became a movement.

Today I am inspired by artists such as Seema Kohli, Dhruvi Archaya, Ritika Merchant and Heri Dono.

I’m not sure who I have inspired. But in 2019, I started organising open call exhibitions for emerging artists to showcase their art.

 Discrimination and cultural appropriation of Indians and our art happens in the art industry here as well. It’s a chicken-and-egg situation: we are not featured in top galleries and so our work is not sold to collectors. Meanwhile, the galleries say they don’t feature our art because it doesn’t sell. So I organise shows to give exposure to emerging artists and to provide a space to meet and network. However, 2020 put a damper on that, and I’m regrouping on how to continue the exhibitions.

8. Can you share a little about how you became an artist and what your path of study has been like? How have your goals and approaches changed over time?

I’m a self-taught artist. I learnt and practiced the art of Kolams (known as mandala) as a child and continued practicing the art. In 2016, I wanted a particular painting for my house, and that started my process of reconnecting with art. Soon I was painting everyday, defining my style and path. Art-making grew to be a serious professional pursuit. I started studying the local art scene and the art scene overseas, learning about different genres and styles of art and and the politics of the art business. I started focusing on opportunities overseas as much as I did locally. I’ve always been an avid traveller, but in 2018 and 2019 my travel was focussed on art. My journey took me to Manila, India, Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Osaka, Japan. In 2020, though our borders were closed, my art travelled to South Korea, Jakarta and The Babel Masks exhibition. While I had different plans for 2020, I’m quite pleased with how 2020 progressed in terms of art for me.

9.  What hopes do you have for the future of the arts, and what role do you feel artists might play in the rescue and rehabilitation of humanity in the wake of a pandemic that has inflicted so many layers of trauma? What sustains you in your resolve to continue creating?
My art reflects the eb and flow of human behaviour and experience. As I mentioned earlier, in 2020 I developed a different style and emotion to my art. I felt people needed to see art that was empathetic to what we were experiencing. Fear, mental health, risk of infection, economic uncertainties, failed governance impacted human lives were things people constantly had on their mind. Which is why most of the art I produced in 2020 addressed these issues. On one side I created art that was hopeful and the other addressed the anxiety people were feeling. I feel that has really connected with my audience. We are very much living in a time where we are experiencing multitude of emotions and trauma every day.

Personally, I felt a mental block in the second quarter of 2020. Besides the pandemic fears and economic uncertainties, I was caught between moving and lived surrounded by boxes. Not the most ideal situation to be in. Many times we forget that many people were staying indoors in non-ideal situations. The lockdown experience was not the same for everyone.

Only after moving did I realise how much I had been affected by the various situations. Slowly the mental block vanished. It’s one of the reasons I started a new art series and style.

10.  If you were to give advice to a person at the beginning of their artist’s path, what would you advise them? What do you wish you had known when you started your own artistic study?

Create every day, even if it’s just for 30 minutes. The practice will help you grow and master skills. It’s important to learn about the different genres of art, so see as many exhibitions and look at as much art as you can. Lots of information is available online if you are stuck indoors. Figure out the difference between commercial art and fine art and decide where your focus is going to be.

I wish someone had helped guide me into how to find opportunities or how the art industry worked when I first started. Artists I knew kept asking me so when are you exhibiting? But no one actually gave me insight on how to get opportunities or introduced me to their network. I had to learn everything from scratch on my own. I understand that there’s a fear of losing opportunities in such a small industry but I decided I didn’t want to be that way.

My inbox is filled with me giving long explanations on what to do when someone asks how to get opportunities. Which is also why I organise the emerging artist open calls. It’s a lot of thankless work but I rather help launch people than keep things to myself. I believe in giving without the expectation of receiving. Share, and the universe will send you more blessings.