July is South Asian Heritage Month....

...and this year’s theme is Unity in Diversity!

Our exhibition, Manasā Chitra: The Art of Mental Health from Bengaluru to Bethlem, explores the experience of mental health and how individuals in and around Bengaluru, which is a city in southern India, expressed and dealt with their distress and the diversity of ways and which they went about that.

India is a place of great diversity in religion, environments and culture; and these various aspects of Indian history and current society are reflected within the exhibition, with art that is used as a medium of expression, storytelling and therapy. Within the artwork, a variation of different religious ideas, forms of nature and cultural values are demonstrated in reference to the artists own encounters with mental health struggles and conditions. The notable use of colour, natural landscapes and depiction of individuals and families are all used to convey a range of emotional states and attitudes, whether that be a sense of hope and optimism or hardship and pessimism. 

One artwork within the exhibition that demonstrates the diversity of nature and community within India is ‘The Village’ by M. N. Nagesh. This painting depicts a collection of houses that most notably has a tree placed at the centre of them. This already places the focus on an aspect of nature, not mention the several other trees, birds and significant mountain in the background. This idea of community that is almost unified and surrounded by diverse forms of dramatic nature clearly highlights the importance that the artist attributes to the environment.

Additionally, D’Souza’s two watercolour artworks both include ideas surrounding religion and nature as connected features of India. D’Souza’s ‘The World of Realism We Live In, and God’s Gifts’, drawings of various animals, plants and humans can be seen on top of an abstract map of the world, but most significantly Asia. The words that are then written on top of such drawings create a voice that is possibly criticising Western Medicine.

The diversity of the fascinating aspects of Indian and South Asian culture and identity that are presented within our exhibition, Manasā Chitra, remind us of the lives of many that differ so greatly to our own, but also the unity and similarity between our attempts to cope with and express the struggles we all face across the world.