Enter the room, one sees darkness first. Move a little forward, light emanates from a large installation resembling a fish trap erected in the middle of the room. Artist Insha Manzoor turns on the music system and poems accompanied by soothing music fill the air, elevating the spectator to a different mood.
Insha, a native of Kashmir, says her work Trapped not Defeated’ made of fishing nets, thread, hooks and floaters is inspired from the fish trap. “The idea was to find some local elements to narrate my thoughts,” says Insha, who reached Kochi in May to take part in the art residency programme by Kochi Biennale Foundation.
“Every morning, when I opened the windows of my studio in Pepper House, I could see the sea and fishermen in work. The entire landscape, fishermen and boats caught my attention. I observed them closely and saw them using floaters and various coloured nets. The boats made me nostalgic because in Kashmir, we have boats of different colours,” says Insha.
All her observations have found a place in her interactive installation. Walk into the trap, there are tiny floaters wrapped with bright threads hanging from above and a boat. “The work is an outrage of my own psyche — the conflicts and contradictions I feel in my personal and social life. I come from a valley that is in conflict. The mind is somewhere trapped, maybe with the memories,” says Insha, whose family moved to Jammu due to the conflict in Kashmir. Art has been with her since then. She is currently pursuing her masters in art in London.
The elements imbibed from sea have been used as metaphors in the work. “The boat denotes the journey of life and floaters the barriers. The colourful threads signify colours of life.” However, unlike a fish trap, Insha’s installation has an exit. “The exit is a sign of hope; it says there is a way out of the trap that could be physical or emotional.”
The musical recitation in the background is so deep that one would look within, listening to it. “It is a blend of a few lines from Justin Foley’s Light in the Darkness, poems of Rumi and from my poem Desire,” she says reciting two lines — There is a wish, a desire/ My desire is as old as the knotting threads — from Desire. As said in Desire, knots form an integral part of her installation.
“In pilgrim centres, you can see people tie knots to fulfill wishes. In Kashmir, my mom and grandmom used to tie a knot at the end of their dupatta if they had any wish, and would untie it once the wish came true. Hence, I did the art of knots. All these knots are unrealised wishes,” explains Insha. So, when one travels through the trap and walks out, it fills the person’s mind with the hope that someday her/his wish will happen. Thus, Insha transforms a dark space into a happy one.
Trapped not Defeated is open to the public for a week at Pepper House from 10 am to 5 pm.
