Ujwal Mantha

The Mindland Travel Journals ("A Photo Essay")

“Wandering the Mindlands” is a mixed media series that explores subjectivity, self-perception, and the narratives we surround ourselves with. The work consists of five pieces, each accompanied by a handwritten note, that are compiled and made to resemble a travel journal. The viewer follows the artist as I “travel” through my own mind, recording my experiences as if I were a tourist and my mind were an actual physical place.
The Mindlands are both a result and a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to travel in the real world, I opted to “travel” inwards. Using terms and concepts borrowed from cartography and psychology, I created a world that was modeled on the human psyche. I proceeded to map out the world, inspired by early medieval maps of the earth. Maps, whilst they promise objectivity are notoriously influenced by the cartographer’s bias and looking at old maps often tell us more about the society that made them than the land they are based on.
To make these detailed paintings, I use a method that I’ve come to call “Frankensteining”. My practice resembles that of Victor Frankenstein. The difference being that where he strung together limbs and organs from different people, I tie different ideas, motifs, and symbols together to convey a certain concept. Though that might essentially be what all artists do, I enjoy describing my process in this particular way. I simply wish for art to be enriching, a means by which the life of both the artist and the viewer of art is enhanced.