Is this what an orgasm would look like?

Mumbai artiste Sahil Mane, certainly thinks so. In his first exhibition in the city, he presents colourful photographs that capture the tone and intensity of a sexual episode, clicked using a computer woofer, a balloon, and some 'jumping' paint

Earlier this year, before Sahil Mane had his first exhibition in New Delhi, a minor problem cropped up. The Mumbai-based photographer's parents were blushing with embarrassment. How would they send out invitations to friend and family for their son's debut show?

After all, the exhibition was titled, Orgasm.u00a0Mane considered his parents' suggestion of replacing it with a more ambiguous 'O', but finally stuck with the original name. The show continued, controversy-free and without any awkwardness.u00a0 This week, Mane will showcase the works in the city.

There is no better way to describe the exhibition other than call it a concert of colours. In the photographs, water bubbles dash against each other, producing umbrella-like images, and bright acrylic paint streaks stand on end. And as abstract as they are, placed in a sequence with a series of suggestive captions, including, I Heart You, Anticipation, Electrical Storm and All Stormed Out, they communicate various stages of a sexual encounter innovatively.

"Sex is something that often figures in my discussions with people. And it only seems natural that my first exhibition is inspired by it," says Mane. But what really got him to choose the theme, he clarifies, was that sex remains a taboo subject, and finds a mention in the media only for prurient reasons. "I wanted to show sex in all its warmth, wholesomeness and aesthetics."

While at first glance you may think Mane has used Adobe Photoshop to enhance his pictures, he says all he really had at his disposal was a Canon 5D Mark II and a piece of equipment he ordered from the US that helped him take pictures at the precise moment when say, water drops dashed against each other and streaks of paint competed for the 'who's taller' title.

The pictures were all shot within 15 days in his living room. For images involving acrylic paints, he covered the woofers of his Apple computer with a balloon. Over it, bright acrylic paints were poured. When Mane punched a wrong key on his computer, it made the default 'Funk' sound, at which point, the balloon over the woofer made the paints jump. And Mane went 'click'. "It's a fairly simple procedure," he says.

And that's different from the road that led him to photography. Mane studied to become an IT engineer, and later got into broadcast journalism, and anchored a technology show. He gave it all up last year to study photography at the Hallmark Institute of Photography in Massachusetts, USA.

He became a photographer because he enjoyed the medium, and has an observant, curious streak. As a child, he says he was fascinated by how water changed when detergent was added to it, or milk appeared when coffee was poured into it. "My mother thought I was spaced out, but I could only see beauty," he says.

As far as the photographer's tryst with sex goes (professionally, of course), it only gets better. His next show is titled, Multiple Orgasm! Apart from photographs, sculptures, and multimedia will find a place in the exhibit, to justify the 'multiple' tag. What did you think!

When: Till June 30
At: Gallery at Svenska, F-73/74, Oberoi Complex, SAB TV Road, Andheri (W).
Call: 4431 0000