BOUNDLESS LIKE A WORK OF ART

Take out a notepad or make a mental note and ask yourself these questions: “What are your dreams? Where do you want to be in future? How are you going to accomplish what you desire? When are you going to start working towards your goal? What is stopping you? What are your challenges?” Now if you need some motivation to push yourself out of that mental block, We The Women, has brought for you about the journey of this young thriving women, who muffled her ears and walked straight towards her dreams even when the strangles of the society’s remarks tried to restrain her.



Insha Manzoor was born to Naseema and Lt. Manzoor Ahmad Ganaie, in Mattan of Anantnag district in the early 90’s. At a very young age, she got fascinated by painting while she watched elder sister of her friend paint. That’s how her journey with paints and brushes began. And at a very young age she realized that she was not allowed to dream.

Insha shares, “Being born at a place where patriarchy is a dominant attitude in the society, it is a constant struggle to be of ‘subordinate’ gender; your will, goals, opinions, choices are sabotaged even before you could nurture them.”

She further adds on, “Fortunately, unlike in the case of many other women, my father made me stronger and confident as well as nurtured me in a way that I vowed to myself to take on every challenge and conquer them. It gave me strength to dream big.”

Early years of this girl went by gawking the beauty of nature that surrounded her while the valley engulfed in the conflict which ingrained in her understanding of physical, social and psychological. “I started expressing thoughts, my urges and my surrounding through words and by portraying the colors on the paper. That was the time when I concerned myself with the issues of life and death, pleasure and pain, revealing and concealing, freedom, desire and fear,” shares Insha.

Insha’s father accompanied her throughout the country for several exhibitions and workshops, with Ministry of Culture. “I left my native land and did my first solo exhibition of my works at the age of 14 and became the junior scholar of Centre of cultural resources and training (CCRT) Delhi, ministry of culture, India. That’s how my battle for fragmented identity started and I decided to take up art as a profession.”

After finishing Bachelors in Fine Art from Institute of Music & Fine Arts, University of Jammu with 1st Class in Fine Art Painting/Art History, she went for Masters in Fine Art, Visual Art (Painting) from Visva-Bharati University Santi Niketan, West Bengal. Right after it, she got called from The Royal College of Arts, London where she went ahead in 2016 to pursue Masters in Visual Art (painting).

With this she became first north Indian to ever pursue Masters in Painting from prestigious Royal College of Arts. In fact she was offered double Master’s degree which is exceptional.

In her kity, Insha has several awards. To name a few, she has Talent Search Scholarship, National Award 2004 (CCRT) MOC ; Budding Artist Award 2006, JKAACL; National Art Award 2007, Red Cross Society, India; Annual Painting Art Award 2007, JKAACL; Annual Painting Art Award 2008, JKAACL ; Acrylic, winner of Annual Contest, Kokuyo Camlin Art Foundation India in 2013; Pride Of Paradise, Top 12 Achievers Award 2017 by JK Bank.

Insha has been encouraged by grants like Young Artists of India, National scholarship Scheme by HRD ministry of Culture in 2015 and Art grant to Study Abroad (UMEED-NGO) Kashmir in 2016, which she truly deserved considering her work and contribution in the field.

Insha has also worked on two massive solo projects which has exhibited her vitality in her field; ‘The Journey of Hope-II’ Kala-Bhavan, Santi Niketan, West Bengal India in 2015 and ‘The Knotting Project’ Sackler building, The Royal College of Art, London in 2017.

She proved her talent at a very young age, by starting her journey of Solo Exhibition in 2006, when she held exhibition ‘Bridge of Dreams’ at Sansar Chand Gallery, Kala Kendra Jammu and never stopped after that. It was followed by many solo exhibitions, few of which are: ‘Izhar’ the expressions, (in collaboration with JKAACL) Kala Kendra, Jammu and ‘Portraits’ (in collaboration with CCRT,MOC)at SAII Shillong, Meghalaya, in 2008; Me and my Surroundings, (in collaboration with CCRT, MOC) at NITTR, Bhopal in 2009; Silent Cry, (in collaboration with CCRT, Ministry of Culture) in Valley School, Bengaluru in 2010; ‘Celebrating Creation’(in collaboration with JKAACL) Kala Kendra, Jammu.

Not only solo exhibition, Insha has fair share of participation in group exhibition. Some of them are: Cultural Exchange, Sarvodhya Vidhayala, Red Cross Society, 2007; Unity In Diversity, Valley school, Bengaluru 2010; Contemporary Indian Women Artist, Chandigarh in 2013; National Exhibition of Art, Lalit Kala Academy, Nagpur in 2013; ‘Melange’ Group show at Birla Academy of Art, Kolkata 2014; ‘Finale’ at Russian Centre of Science &Culture, by ICCR, Kolkata in 2015. In 2017 she had group exhibition ‘Whip’ Show at Dyson Art Gallery Royal College of Art, London.

Insha’s long list of work exhibit her passion towards art. To add on to which she has quite a list of residencies/ workshops some of which are: Unity, National workshop of Art & Culture, Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi (2007); Unity in Diversity, National Workshop of Art & Culture, CCRT, MOC in SAII Shillong, Meghalaya (2008), NITTR Bhopal (2009) and Bengaluru (2010);Young Artists Camp, organized by JKAACL at Kala Kendre Jammu (2012); Painting Workshop for young Artists at SSVAD, Shanti Niketan west Bengal (2014); Inter-weaving cultures, International Textile workshop between Norway-India in Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan (2014); Across RCA- Global cultural community research workshop collaborated with Royal college of Art, London (2017).

She expresses, “Different cultural identities of my vast country helped me to learn and look at the whole of man’s endeavour by narratively reconstructing this history through its archival traces.”

Adding on, she says, “I understood that, Art demands the intelligent understanding of all that, which can bring about a profound change in the consciousness of mankind; to understand is the beginning.”

Insha believes Art is an aesthetic experience and can also be an instrument for social progress and cultural peace. According to her, the idea is to expand and enhance her ideas of research as “an attempt to understand how physical and psychological confrontation between ‘self’ and ‘others’ shapes our understanding of personal identity and of social image that we express through creative activities.”

She explains, “My aim is to promote peace through the Art, using Art as a therapy to enlighten others and nourish the ignited minds and transform their energies towards creative skills and promote peace by involving them in art activities.”

In our society, the position of the artists and intellectuals within the public sphere is constantly called into question. Insha expresses, “This trauma compels a complete rethinking, if not necessarily the overhaul of the forms, strategies, and techniques of everyday existence as well as the devices through which cultural production occurs and in the places where it is grounded.”

Talking about the hardships she had to face to move in the direction of her heart, Insha says, “The struggle is unending but you just get mature enough to pick up your fights. Once the desire to be validated is out of context it gets less damaging. Initially the hardship was to make my dreams get understood and now it is my art.

She further elaborates, “It is very easy to influence the mindset of general mass and put entirely different meaning to my art. I have been called anti-social and what not, but I think it is natural to happen when I woman is conscious about herself, the right and wrong that she is subjected to, to realize that she is oppressed even if she has never experienced otherwise and bold enough to voice her feeling, bringing out the outrage that burns her inside.”

Speaking on the same line, Insha says, “It sounds clichéd buy it is true that if you are determined to chase your passion and pursue your dreams, there is nothing that can stop you; lack of support, financial constraints, criticism, rebuke are just excuses.”

Talking about her feeling on coming back, Insha shares, “I feel great to be back. I opted for it rather than picking up a job or pursuing something further because I wanted some time off to calm down; it is like detoxifying yourself in order to remind yourself what you really are, where you belong and what is your vision”.

She adds on, “Once you are distanced, only then I believe you get a clear picture of the richness we have here. The diversity of cultures, faith and lifestyles are what makes us unique. I am here to observe with a new perspective and get inspired for my future work.”

Insha believes that women have equal right to live on their own terms, make their own choices, pursue their dreams, pick their goals, be empowered by education, be self sufficient and lead a life with dignity. Her words to women out there are, “Have faith in yourself; love yourself. Dream and be fearless. Be determined and be persistent, towards your goal; do not get disheartened by what others say or do. Seize every opportunity that comes your way, otherwise you would never know which was right for you to know the meaning of life.”


Updated On 2/1/2018 1:59:15 PM