We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sukanya Mani a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sukanya , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I am a St. Louis-based, Indian- born interdisciplinary artist. My artistic process is a practice of sustained curiosity and constant learning through asking questions. The artworks result from pursuing inquiry borne out of a community-based, research-driven process. My current project is about building awareness for the prevalence of domestic violence, with a focus on immigrant and refugee communities through artistic installation and education. Based on knowledge from research, oral traditions, data and interviews, I am creating an awareness campaign through art installations called Beside Between Beyond.
I was born in India and remember the first few years of emigrating to the US. Geographically isolated, learning about a new environment with no financial income was very daunting. I was fortunate to have a supportive spouse to help navigate these difficult times. This got me to think about vulnerable people who are put into these circumstances with an abusive partner. The vulnerability of these individuals was compounded during COVID. I wanted to research support systems in place to assist these individuals. In 2020, I started the process of collecting and collating data about domestic violence which will then be transformed through intricate paper cuts and found object installations into visual art.
The goal is to highlight specific challenges within these communities and illustrate culturally sensitive design solutions. I have partnered with local and national government agencies and advocates who work with local, immigrant and refugee domestic violence survivors.
Currently I am working on the following:
a) The creation of an interactive site specific installation that seeks to highlight the lives of the victims of domestic violence, with a focus on victims in the immigrant and refugee community.
b) An educational component as part of an online resource page with links to actionable items like donations, volunteering and identifying and helping with abuse.
c) A traveling exhibit that will collect locally sourced stories and data and present them to their communities.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My artistic journey started with hand cut paper informed by materials, location and the installation process. My work explores how creativity impacts space, often through the act of cutting and installation. Operating between abstraction and representation, my installations involve cutting paper into patterns that fragment and unite the female body, rendering it both familiar and strange. Transforming the violent act of cutting into an act of creation is central to my artistic approach. Light, space, time and gravity are used as conceptual forces in my installations. My recent work incorporates legal documents, informative pamphlets and found objects into the installations.
I create clusters of undulating forms by warping, cutting, manipulating, and installing paper and found materials. My work includes large-scale outdoor sculptural pieces and immersive, multi-part installations that highlight the relationship of individual elements to each other. Each exhibit brings together a site specific, immersive, multi part installation that is organized by visual complexity and relationship of individual elements to each other. Large and small representative and abstract symbols establish a progression to encourage the exploration of patterns, forms and the overall theme that I consider in my work. Stories, conversations, reading, and listening enter into my artwork, which may or may not be recognized by the viewer.
My current project is a awareness building campaign about Domestic Violence through art and education. The goal of this project is to highlight specific challenges within domestic violence communities and illustrate culturally sensitive design solutions. Specific details about my current project Beside Between Beyond:
Weight of Shadows- This installation consists of 10 intricate paper cuts sandwiched between plexiglass frames and a free hanging undulating form hovering over the frames. Each frame holds a story, or a piece of data. The cutting and removing of the paper is a very violent act. Piercing, tearing and removing are all destructive. But through this act of destruction, I have discovered the transformative idea of creation. I use visa applications and informative pamphlets as base material to create the papercuts to highlight immigrant survivors. The colors, materials and cuts are chosen with the intention of representing the domestic violence community.
The Bangle Project- In 2021, I read the statement of an individual going through domestic violence. She mentioned that she was not able to talk to her community for fear of becoming an object of gossip. This statement made me think about how to use awareness and art as a catalyst to bring about societal change. I began collecting and installing donated bangles, a cultural symbol of womanhood and fertility in South Asian culture. Through this process, I engaged with community members through dialogue about creating a safe space for all of us. A space where domestic violence victims and survivors can tell their stories without the fear of judgment.
The exhibit will bring together an immersive, multi part installation that is organized by visual complexity and relationship of individual elements to each other. This is done with the motive of creating an immersive environment for the viewer to enter and explore.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My artistic process is a practice of sustained curiosity and constant learning through asking questions. The artworks result from pursuing inquiry borne out of a community-based, research-driven process. Each project begins with discovering a core idea around which I build the work. I then experiment with various media to find the best fit to deliver this core idea to its intended audience. In the past, I have created site-specific installations, public art, immersive paper sculptures, murals, and paintings. My most recent work was borne out of isolation during the pandemic when a news article about domestic violence (DV) caught my attention. I have worked with the DV community to increase awareness, assist with educational materials and bring in creative solutions to face the challenges.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
There are multiple ways for the society to support artists. The arts should be supported by allowing artists the creative freedom to express themselves and human connections. Artists will also benefit from grants and subsidies that allow them the financial freedom to push boundaries and create work that may not always be a product. Creativity is a way of thinking, and artists promote culture, social work and new ways of thinking and understanding our world. Art cannot be looked only as a “product” but a living breathing ecosystem that promotes our human condition.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sukanyamani.com/gallery
- Instagram: Manakins_art
- Linkedin: Sukanya Mani
Image Credits
Photo Credit: Pratima Murali