Playing with form and space
His subjects deal with human forms in particular, caught in the web of internal strife and the conflicts of modern existence. He is in the quest of the dictate "know thyself". His portraits do not depict physical faces but reflect the souls of tortured and confused individuals. He even sees his own reflection on the face of the moon and his dream world is populated with a moon woman who walks arm in arm with him. In his portrayals he is not realistic and colours his vision with his dreams and fears. He also portrays the day to day social problems that we face which he combines with personal feelings. These are depicted sometimes in a surrealistic way and has used a lot of simplification along the way.
In his depiction of the mythical borak, the human bird is depicted as weak, with the wings falling away and the limbs coming apart. The face does not depict an element of peace which one would have expected in the creature of folklore and contains three portraits of the artist himself, seen with his lips sealed. Two of the faces are seen from the side while the obviously angry and confused one is seen from the front. An element revered by many has been reduced to something helpless and in this Manir is being iconoclastic. Wonder besieged has a scowling man adorned with gaudy wings of a butterfly, done in brown, green and red. Garishly tinted flowers and a house are included at the back. The man is unshaven, his lips are twisted and he appears to be the epitome of discontentment. The harshness of our present existence is reflected in the clashing colours and the sometimes disoriented images. The tiny houses at the back are the roots of the people, which the artist feels, we often tend to forget. The butterflies are a person's dreams which he clings on to despite his confusion and problems.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. In another painting are many butterflies with a man holding on to a talpatar shepahi and bearing wings of contrasting colours. This too deals with men's dreams of happier days. In The prey a man is sitting and eating a bird, complete with its wings. Where the face should be there is a simple circle and where the shirt should be is a scrawl bringing in the face. This too is somewhat a horrifying image, taken from a dream world of hopes and despair.
'We are destroying our planet everyday,' Manir comments. The split has once more the inner and apparent struggles of mankind. A person is seeing struggling with himself rather than his opponents in a game of kabbadi. This also brings in the enormous indecision in our lives. The footfall of eternity depicts the veins and protruding bones of the lower limbs of a seated man. In front are some cacti which take the form of humans, if one looks at them closely.
Manir combines his painting with a nine to five job as a graphic designer. He is happy to work in his little studio. The reason it has taken him so long to have his second solo, explains Manir, is that it took him time to settle in Dhaka after coming from Chittagong.