Artist Story: Mani Kambo

Please give a brief introduction to yourself and your artistic practice

As a teenager, I joined a few art clubs after school and at local galleries. I was always interested in art and media subjects but wasn’t really sure what I would do as a career, and I didn’t really know how to become an artist.

I studied fine art in the north east of England at Newcastle College and Northumbria University. At college, there was an art-house cinema evening every week which really struck a chord with me. I became fixated on the power and magic of the screen and delved further into moving image as a medium. Jean Cocteau’s The Blood of a Poet, and Testament of Orpheus, Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon, Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and El Topo: the power these films had over the viewer and the beauty of the cinematography was like nothing I had seen before. This made me want to be a filmmaker and an artist.

I started making experimental short films and then began to experiment with print and cyanotypes. The magic of an image being created and revealed through light and water fascinated me. Most recently I’ve been working in textile which feels like a leap away from my moving image works, but I am starting to go full circle and move back to moving image again. I’ve found that my film works feed into my print works and vice versa.

I’ve always been influenced by my upbringing in a home which was filled with religion, superstition and tradition. Magic, superstition and storytelling are key elements within my work and tend to be a starting point that I expand from.

Is the symbolism in your work related to personal narratives and beliefs or do you draw on imagery, ideas and symbols from particular, or a diversity of, belief systems, rituals and myths?

The symbolism within my work is something I’ve been refining for years and I wouldn’t say it comes from a particular belief or religion but there are elements that I channel through my own belief systems. These belief systems have been shaped through my upbringing and interaction with the world.

Creating my own lexicon of symbols has enabled me to navigate the world. When I was growing up, it gave me a way to share tales or thoughts about my existence and consciousness, to consider how actions have a balance between good and evil.

A simple South Asian ritual could be putting a black dot behind your left ear to protect you on your journeys and cast away someone’s negative intent. But I associate my own particular meaning with each symbol. Some symbols hold a more universal understanding, but others are more specifically related to me and have a personal meaning. I don’t prescribe what my works mean – I like that they are open to interpretation and allow the viewer to fill in the blanks. With my banner series, MK Sigil (2020), Crest (2020), Crest 2 (2020), Equilibrium (2022) and Pathways (2022), the symbols are much more direct in terms of their message.

Is it important for you to be physically present in your work? The hand is a repeated motif. What does the hand represent and what or who is the Moonsnake?

In my earlier moving image works, I used myself as the main subject, including close-ups of my hands and eyes. These motifs also appear in my early screenprint Hands Eye (2017) and are re-used in my recent embroidery work The Bridge (2021). The hand is a motif I repeat regularly within my work as it represents a protector; the hand of the mother. It is a symbol for the actions that are used to protect oneself. The hand can also ward away negativity and expel positivity through action and intent. As I’ve continued to develop the language of my practice I’ve found I can step back and have other elements act as stand-ins for myself, or better explain ideas I am exploring that are connected with the self without having to be present.

Moonsnake is an alter ego of mine, it started off as a nickname in college and has changed over time. It was one of the characters in an early experimental film I made titled Knight to M2 (2014). It’s an alternate version of myself, the counterpart to light and dark, who I can channel when making some of my work.

Why is light so important in your work?

Light is an important element in my work due to its power. Light from the sun is used to grow plants and food and to heat the earth. Light is also a source of hope and good in the world as it balances out the darkness. It was used in early cinema to allow images to be revealed and move. I’ve always found the element of light in a projection magical; it can create a shadow or image that moves, but you can also be absorbed into the light of the projection and become one with what is being shown within an installation.

There’s a similar magical quality to the creation of a cyanotype, an alchemy in the coating of the paper that is then exposed to light to allow the image to be created, and finally washed through water and left to dry. Without light, we can’t create or see the image.

How important are dreams as a source for ideas? Do you use imagery or narratives from specific dreams, or is your work more about the nature of dreaming and how it affects our waking lives?

Dreams have always fascinated me, in what they can mean and how they are interpreted. I don’t use specific imagery from my dreams but I am interested in dream logic. My work is more about the nature of dreaming and the places you can go when dreaming, the feeling of dreaming and the boundless options. Dreams evoke the senses, and scent can be used as an aid to help us relax, but also can trigger memories. Similar to the symbols I use in my work, dreams have their own meaning and are open to interpretation. You can look for the positive or negative within them and see them as a way to help you in your waking life. It is said that in the dreaming world our mind and soul can leave the body, transcending and connecting with higher consciousness, with our ancestors. We’re plugged into technology and all the digital waves but we’ve moved away from connecting with ourselves, the land and our histories.

Is there a particular relevance to the different processes and mediums that you choose to work with?

I started working with moving image as I was lured by the magic of the screen and the ephemeral quality of projection. It’s a transformative medium and allows for the unconscious to flow freely. It has an element of surprise, that anything is possible, of freeing ourselves from constraints and boundaries or even narrative structures. Moving away from the confines of the ‘boxed screen’ allows oneself to become absorbed into the film and installation. I also began to experiment with fabric screens, and how a projection could be manipulated and pass through layers of sheer fabrics. This can be seen in my film installation Mind’s Eye (2018) which was included in my exhibition ‘RIFT’ at Vane. The work reflected upon dreamscapes as a portal to another realm, and the conscious or unconscious element of our minds that is transitory.

With block print, screenprint and cyanotype, I am interested in the layering of images and symbols and how they fit together. I use an almost cut and paste approach, which is similar to how I create my films, layering one image or texture on another. Through print, I’m able to stop and reflect on the symbols and images I’m using and dig deeper into my connection with them. Experimenting with print also developed from exploring simple paper animation techniques.

Most recently I have been working in textile and this links to the caste system in India. I come from a line of fabric dyers, printmakers and tailors, who would dye and print patterns onto fabric and create clothing. With textiles there’s a warmth and protective feel, like a parent placing a blanket over you as you sleep, it’s ingrained with memory and conversation.

Is working with embroidery a relatively new medium for you? Is your work becoming more direct in terms of your use of symbols and imagery as a result of working in embroidery?

Yes, working in embroidery is a new medium for me. I started to explore textiles and embroidery a couple of years ago when I began to look into my family history. This research allowed me to introduce an element of history and storytelling into my work. It’s a way to be present within the work in a non-literal way. The embroidery element of my practice and the repetitive motion of the sewing machine moving in and out of the fabric links to meditative processes and transcending. The repetitive motion of creating the work is a physical manifestation of how gesture and action hold power, and is engrained in the work. I have been refining the symbols I use within my work, figuring out what each symbol means to me as well as to wider society as they are open to interpretation – some have pre-existing meanings while others have a more specific connection to me. The language and mediums I have been using most recently have, I think, become more direct in their subject matter.

How important have residencies and commissions been in developing your work?

Through residencies and commissions, I have been able to push my making processes, to work at a different scale and to create site-specific work. Most recently I was in residence at Somerset House Studios, London, for three months where I created a site-specific artwork which ended up being a wallpaper – something I haven’t created before. Through guidance, I was able to work at a larger scale than previously, and was supported by industry professionals, enabling me to make the work the way I intended it to be without having to do everything myself.

Opportunities at, or supported by, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, Allenheads Contemporary Arts, Allenheads, and HOME, Manchester, along with awards from Arts Council England, have helped to grow my confidence in creating work and in being an artist, and to expand my practice beyond the north east of England. Being selected for commissions and residencies has given me a boost through having others engage in conversations about my work, and by connecting me with audiences and organisations to continue these conversations. Support through funding has enabled me to buy equipment to continue making and to invest in my career. I have been able to take risks in making and experimenting before having to settle on a final design for the work, which has allowed me to test ideas in different mediums.

Do you have any particular memories of your experience of working with Vane?

I was included in the Vane exhibition, ‘Exposing Form’, in 2017 in celebration of International Women’s Day. It was a great exhibition to be involved with as I got to meet other female artists who work within the region, and it gave me an opportunity to project one of my moving image works, Sunflower Eye (2017), at a large-scale. Then in 2018, Vane hosted my solo show, ‘RIFT’, which brought together a body of work including cyanotypes, moving image and small objects. This was one of the first few solo exhibitions I’d had in the north east and it helped me to engage with the local arts scene and connect with artists working at Orbis Community in Commercial Union House, Newcastle, where Vane was based at the time.

Through these opportunities, I have been able to work at a larger scale and test ideas out as well as make work-to-scale, specific for the gallery space. Chris and Paul gave me space to test ideas and elevate my practice by pushing these ideas, and they offered practical assistance in installing the work. It was also great to host a workshop inspired by ‘RIFT’ – a surrealist collage workshop – and this allowed me to develop my facilitation skills while getting input and feedback from workshop attendees who offered their thoughts on the exhibition. Hosting an artist’s tour around the exhibition boosted my confidence in my work and ideas, and helped me to get better at public speaking. When you’re working away in the studio, you don’t have a chance to get input, insights and feedback from the public, and I found it invaluable to see how others read and engaged with the work.

Interview by Stephen Palmer

Read more about Mani Kambo’s exhibitions at Vane.