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| Sunday, 28 September 2003 |
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'Theertha : 'A celebration of the human race by JAYANTHI LIYANAGE The Road. Where will it take us, you and I? To Paradise? Or to an abyss of our own making? If this road could lead us anywhere, where would you like it to lead us?
How can we pinpoint specifications to build this road from this point onwards in time? Are we talking to, and opening ourselves to an interchange with the different people we meet on the road? Are we picking up from the road what we would want for the journey? More importantly, are we throwing aside what keeps dragging us back? In the infinite spaces with sweeping multi-level terraces of sky, lawn and river of the Lunuganga Estate of the late architect Geoffrey Bawa, six international and eight local artists came together in a searching of the spirit of theertha (the trek of our transit in samsara). And also made it a celebration of the human race in "the spirit of Bawa" which artist Salahuddin Khan of Bangladesh expressed saying: "If we cannot express celebration through noise in this place, let's find other equally powerful ways to express it!" Having found this expression after two weeks of experimentation in "the art laboratory" of the Lunuganga Estate, the Theertha International Artists' Workshop 2003 invited the media and art lovers to critique its concepts in installation art, a genre which incorporates different media to create a visceral and conceptual experience in a particular environment, fusing sculpture, video, sound, performance and space itself.
As Anoli Perera, Co-ordinator of the workshop and Secretary, Theertha Artists' Collective, summed up, "The objective of the workshop was to explore the idea of collaboration and working together, by dissolving boundaries between artists and art forms within South Asia and different regions of Sri Lanka. It's tough working together, as egos clash, but the whole idea is of dialogue and of finding ways to work together." It has been said of installation art that "it moves around the realm of defiance -against elitism, symbolism and the commercialisation of art- in a century which absorbs everything around it and comes up with scatology (a focusing on the bodily) rather than eschatology (narrating with a direction). It's a fall from grace, a movement towards utopia and destruction, producing products of mixed and confused origins, sometimes an art of desperation and sometimes of utopia, or cynicism." An art form of similar ethos Anoli described in Jahuta (debas katana mudra natya), of Vayamba Sathsara which came from Wariyapola. "It's a very hybrid form of dancing which came about in the early 20th century, drawing from the Pasi theatre and Hindi movies and hybridising costumes of Kandyan and Bharatha dancing. Inviting Jahuta of popular entertainment culture to the workshop was to recognise that they too are a part of the entertainment culture of Sri Lanka. Here, we have this division of low art and high art- the refined art represented at national level, but entertainment like Jahuta is really popular culture which an average person really enjoys. Another group was the Saranga puppeteers from Wathugedera." Theatre director Barnaby King from the UK cemented today's propensity to hybidise through his writing in the "Machang Gallery", created by a blend of different artists. "There is really no such thing as a blank canvass. We are always writing or painting on top of something else in the real world, and this will always show, sooner or later. It's the negotiation with the old. By accepting what has gone before and seeking to move beyond it, we may progress." The strip of "the Road" Barnaby built with three other local artists was to him "An interesting learning experience of how people can work together, and learn each other's language, accept each other's mistakes and capabilities and learn from one another." In mimicry, he and Kapila Palihawadana acted out the spirit of permanent and peaceful building which bonded the cement and the granite together. So, which is the Road to Paradise? "Notions of Paradise" is personal to each of us, and colonially-constructed to some of us. Asma Mundrawala from Pakistan cut off each boat-shaped notion from its tether and drifted them on the vast stretch of Lunu Ganga.
Which one would find its harbour, resisting the winds of wreckage? What burdens did we need to discard, to escape the devastation of wreckage? Free the "caged" woman, performed Jalani Cooray. From puberty, she is imprisoned in the shapes, adornments, colours and the cell assigned to her by family and society - an unwilling yoke she carries for the rest of her life. Or, liberate the "Symbolic Man" who attempts to flutter his way out from the web of deception encircling him, as exquisitely performed by dancer Kaplia Palihawadana. Or, shed the colonial hangovers of "Rubber time" of Mella Jaarsma from Indonesia, in which she showed men lying dormant, hooded in rubber reminiscences, unmindful of their own latent Eastern power. For Sirinivasa Prasad B.H. from India, the "Pancha Boothas" of earth, wind, fire, water and sky were not merely for the pleasure of viewing but to fill the whole world of "Pancha Indriya" which together, creates the human being. When weary in your theertha, quench your thirst with a "Rainbow Drink", the beverage of diversity from Salahudeen Khan. Or, realise that one can turn around any concept in existence to be one's own, by giving it new contours and dimensions, as in "shoes" garnished by Kusal Nandana Gunasekera, with rice, cowpea and dhal, conjuring images of "komala" designs blessing Hindu thresholds. "The Bed of Paradise" cannot be built in isolation, expressed T. Shanaathanan, one of the two artists from Jaffna, bringing forgone experiences of war to theertha. "The red colour and the soft satiny look of the bed is inviting but it's only a camouflage. Lie on it and you will find it quite hard. It's only an illusion. Is this the paradise you want?" Finally, the artists were summoned to a table of unedible food and asked to write their own menu. "The recognition of an unedible culture in itself hints at an edible culture," wrote one artist. "Create a culture in which food is not the priority," wrote another. "And don't feed politicians!" The other artists to creatively lend their concepts to the "road to paradise" were Amanda Heng (Singapore), Kandasamy Sithamparanathan, Amitha Indrani, Sanath Kalubadana and T.H. Pushpakumara. The workshop was chiefly funded by HIVOS (Netherlands) and Art Network Asia (Singapore). |
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