Room for Error

To commit mistakes is part and parcel of one’s humanity. It is a reality of life that has long been recognized by some artistic traditions and movements where flaws and imperfections are not taken as diminishing worth, but in fact renders artistic creations more valuable and appealing. This accommodation of the human nature to err can be extended to aesthetics that taps the potential of chances and unintended occurrences to enrich the artistic process. Outcomes beyond one’s control and those unforeseen by premeditation allow art to remain fascinating and surprising as it continuously offers the unexpected and unfamiliar.

In this solo exhibition, Manok Ventura draws inspiration from instances of accidents and errors to reveal forms that defy the distinction between order and chaos, essence and excess, the deliberate and unintentional. Through paintings and lightboxes, he shares interesting formations of shapes, textures, colors and patterns found in smudges of paints on a wall or an artist’s mixing plate and palette.

Such process leads to the discovery of beauty often missed by an eye preoccupied with clarity, exactitude, certainty and precision. He translates seemingly random and accidental patches and spills into painted canvases and illuminated images, denying the accident and rendering the unintentional deliberate. The resulting works are visually provocative compositions that morph into an endless number of forms and configurations when viewed intently, stimulating a complex interaction between mind and vision.

These explorations, among other things, highlight the role of chances and mistakes in arriving at desired results. They also stress art as a way of looking and a frame of thinking. Unbound by rules, leaving a room for error might perhaps open up more spaces for expressions and prospects to channel creative impulses.

 

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