Unlimited Creativity
For her fourth solo exhibit, Lilianna Manahan finds power in the mundane
She embraced the power of observation to create her latest collection. Known as an industrial and product designer, Lilianna Manahan is, at the core, an artist. Unlimited, her latest exhibition in Modeka Art Gallery, features a material she has loved for years. “I wanted to use this material in different applications. The show gave me a good opportunity to try it out,” she comments.
Metal, this is what she zeroed in on. Manahan’s consistent use of this material she’s loved working with for quite some time now and her manipulation of it into unique works is symbolic of her show’s name, Unlimited. “The different forms of metal come in metal leaf [thin and flat], which could be applied to paper, black iron for the light sculptures and silver in casted, sheet and wire form for the jewellery,” she elaborates.
The inspiration behind each piece and the overall theme of the exhibition is the simple yet potent idea of creation. “I have always been interested in creation, but particularly that split second point in time where everything is still, unformed in darkness, and when God calls everything out into light to become whole. [Genesis 1:1-2]. I’ve tried to imagine the kind of energy just waiting to burst out,” she shares.
With that, her mind ran free, birthing these fresh, imaginative designs. Manahan believes this powerful energy exists in the everyday. Paramount throughout her artistic process is the observation of the surroundings in this lockdown situation. She noticed that there truly is strength in what we have dubbed as the mundane, which is why she chose this as her motif for Unlimited.
What Manahan wants us to understand is that our creative abilities are truly unlimited, no matter the simplicity of our resources
“I think I used more of the mundane circumstances of waking up and doing the same thing every day. It might sound strange, but I took it up as a mental challenge, as an opportunity to do several things. The first was to go back to what I consider the basics, which is drawing, paper, pencil, pen. Even with these things, there is so much that can be created,” she says.
What Manahan wants us to understand is that our creative abilities are truly unlimited, no matter the simplicity of our resources. “[I simply] observed and enjoyed the days, much like what you see in the works of the impressionists such as Monet who just painted the same thing in different times of the day. It was very refreshing for me because a lot of things before the pandemic seemed to move so quickly. But I started noticing things on a macro level. Every day had a sunrise and sunset, but none were exactly alike in colour and in cloud formation. I saw plants grow and behave. All of this kind of showed me that there is beauty and design everywhere, you just have to look closer.”
Through Unlimited, Manahan encourages us to make the most of every moment we have and to not be bogged down by the pandemic. In fact, she realised that limitations cultivate creativity, and has announced that she will be working on more metal smithing, tinkering away to make a new jewellery collection. The possibilities are, indeed, unlimited.