[PhotoSparks] We need more convergence between art and science: Giridhar Khasnis, Gallery Manora

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In this pictorial essay, we feature some of the diverse range of photographs from the exhibition ‘A Moment in Time,’ at the Gallery Manora in Bengaluru.

In the earlier 150 posts, we brought you a wide range of creative photographs from an art fair, world music festival, painting fair, telecom expo, art museum, mobile showcase, business cards, art therapy, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, Vesak, jazz festival, modern art gallery, ecopreneurs, painter-poets, health activists, eNGOs and digital innovators.

Gallery Manora, located on 100 Feet Road in Indiranagar, is featuring the exhibition ‘A Moment in Time’ with the photographs of Abhishek Dasgupta, Pallon Daruwala, Prashant Godbole and Subrata Biswas. The exhibition is curated by Giridhar Khasnis, a Bengaluru-based writer and art curator. His earlier shows include The Root of Everything; Moment, Intercepted; The Open Cage; A Twist in the Tail; My City; and Intimate Lines.

Gallery Manora’s previous exhibitions have included Gondwana Horizon (by Australian ceramic artist Barbara Campbell-Allen) and Revisited (with Seemanthini Desai and Feyona van Stom).

The images in the current exhibition capture a moment in time across diverse settings: a sunset, children at play, animals in their habitats, rural life, timeless rituals, wrinkling of aged faces, and even the slow movements of melting snow. Each operates in its own time cycle and timing connotations, with different end results and emotional impact. Travel, landscape, and street photography merge together across the exhibition, inviting the viewer to contemplate the dynamic relationship between humans, society and nature.

Street photography is like holding a mirror to society, according to Mumbai-based Prashant Godbole; the beauty of photography is that one can ‘make images everywhere.’ In November 2016, his fundraising exhibition of photographs #ShatteredNotBroken commemorated the eighth anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Tribal art and rituals are the theme for Kolkata-based Subrata Biswas. Abhishek Dasgupta’s recent exhibits include ‘Sweet Smell of the Cosm.’

“Art is both universal and personal at the same time,” said Giridhar, in a chat with YourStory. “Art is half done by the artist, half by the viewer. Each view of the same work of art across a period of time evokes a different reaction, and there are always new revelations and insights,” he explains.

Photographs in particular can cut across thematic categories of fine art, documentary, journalism and nature. “Art is the message – engage with it and treat it with the respect it deserves,” advises Giridhar.

He studied science as a student, and does not see a radical difference between science and art. “Mathematics and astronomy are as much art as science,” says Giridhar. As good examples of the scientist-artist convergence, he cites Leonardo da Vinci and C.V. Raman. Now what creative acts have you done lately to bridge your logical and artistic sides?

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