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The Arts

Bringing the old and new together on canvas

Firdaus Ali

What happens when a painter extends his repertoire beyond paints and brushes and expands his gallery from Burlington to the misty hills of Mount Abu? His painting find new perspectives, of course.

It does not matter whether it's multi-media art on the rocks of Mount Abu in India or simply transferring Canada's panoramic landscapes onto canvas. Indo-Canadian painter Panchal Mansaram is comfortable in either form.

Mansaram's artworks are a mélange of electronic, hi-tech art. He enhances visual art with innovative techniques using a simplistic style, creating a fascinating fusion between technology and art. Mansaram revolutionized visual art when he first experimented with black and white xerography and later with photographic enhancement using the color photocopier.

Today, he uses lazergraphy, videography and computer digitalization to produce some bold, abstracted designs. In many cases, the very dissonant provided for a striking balance.

His canvas is a mix of colour movement, space and light all in the right proportions. Here, ghost-like figures inhabit his canvas.

"They appeared one day and now they just hang around and won't go away," he says of his fascination for the loose, floating figures that dance around his paintings.

His novel images are created using complex overlapping designs using a colour copier.

"I tried to elevate art with what technology had to offer. And, like all things that get better with technology, art too took on a new meaning,'' says Mansaram.

His art studio at Burlington, Canada, extends from his backyard to the Royal Botanical Gardens. He often spends hours there, passing his pet racoons, squirrels and birds. The studio has also a collection of paintings, based mostly on the varied faces of India.

"India's landscapes are warm and vibrant," says Mansaram, displaying artworks that are a collage of natural beauty and ethnic figurines juxtaposed against architecture and institutions -- all augmented by lazergraphic or xerographic techniques.

While for most Indo-Canadians, visual art is still essentially uncharted terrain, Mansaram finds that high quality art still finds a place in the homes of rich Indian abroad.

His own work dwells on the past, bringing up tales from the epics or snapshots from medieval history. And their historical content helped ensure that his painting series on India was displayed in Toronto during India's golden independence anniversary celebrations two years ago. He has also had another one-man show in Toronto, sponsored by the Indian consulate.

Born and brought up in Mount Abu, in Rajasthan, India, Mansaram went to Bombay's J J School of Art, where he dabbled in oils and water colors. After bagging a gold medal, he winged his way to Amsterdam, for some formal training in Amsterdam's State Academy of Fine Arts.

"My works are of global content as they are exhibited in many countries around the world. They do not belong to a specific country or genre of art. Like me, they are variegated and dappled in spirit," he says.

Mansaram's forte lies in his ability to juxtapose man-made creations against nature. Subjects include a trees seen through a ribbon of light, a sketch of a bird, and even temples and tombs where ectoplasmic and insubstantial creatures float in and out.

"Whatever be the subject, I try to come go beyond all conventional and contemporary styles. Perhaps it's this quest of keeping off the beaten track that makes my work different from others," says Mansaram, who has also taught art at a high school.

While most of his signature paintings focussing on color and shadow include quotes on issues ranging from pop art to David Hockney to Cubism. Art connoisseurs find most of his works focus on the unknown, the enigmatic and the mystical.

Among his first series of paintings was one called Impressions on Nepal, relying on a variant view of an age-old pagoda. Since then, he's experimented on canvas and his subjects now range from the human form to unconventional landscapes.

"Canada is the country I chose to live in," says Mansaram, who, when he left India 30 years ago, equated the country with French, Eskimos and ice. "I was surprised to find English-speaking people here," he says.

Though he has no regrets about leaving India, he misses everything -- from spicy pickles to the rain, from the winding lanes of Bhendi Bazar in Bombay to the tortuous complexity of Indian philosophy.

"But I try to bring out all these aspects through my paintings on India," says Mansaram, adding that he actually got interested in Indian imagery when he was chosen to do eight posters for Air India.

Today his paintings are known for their strong colors and complex designs.

His recent series, 'Automated Art', won him critical acclaim when it was displayed at the Burlington Art Center in Canada recently. Another entitled 'Rearview Mirror' was a tribute to Time, dwelling on the past and the present had art viewers enthralled.

Currently he is compiling a series on the rock formations of his native Mount Abu. He is using mosaic cement and acrylic paints and engravings made with power tools to mark the insides of granite.

"It is a series I am looking forward to," he says excitedly. So he now shuttles between Mount Abu and Toronto to finish off the series.

Mansaram also dabbles in poetry and prose, and has made three short films of art video and taught in art camps across Toronto. But, art -- as in painting, hi-tech or otherwise -- is what he is devoted to. And he isn't going to let anything take away from it.

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