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| Sunday, 28 March 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Johannes Frischknecht : Creating a bridge between the East and the West The Mandala art exhibition "Circle of Life" was officially opened by the Ambassador of Switzerland Bernardino Regazzoni on March 23 at the Horizon Hall of the Mount Lavinia Hotel.
The event, for which 60 original Mandala paintings had been airlifted from Switzerland, was welcomed by over 120 invited guests. The Swiss artist Johannes Frischknecht, visiting Sri Lanka for the first time, was positively surprised to receive such attention, and spent most of the evening answering questions and discussing his art with an interested crowd. Among the distinguished visitors were the Ambassador of Thailand, himself a Buddhist and admirer of Tantric art, the Hidramani family, the Head of the US Information Agency Mr. Claussen, and Cedric de Silva, President of the George Keyt foundation, who has cooperated to prepare the event. The fact that the Swiss Embassy acted as patron for the exhibition, attracted a large number of Swiss nationals living in Sri Lanka, among them Mrs. Samarasinghe, the wife of Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, and Mr. Patrick Walser and his wife, Marketing Director of Holcim and an art promoter himself. Among the Sri Lankans were also Sanath Ukwatte, owner of the Mount Lavinia Hotel, with his wife Rashmi and art lovers like Tissa Devendra and Ravi Wickramanayake, owner of the Finomenal art gallery at Galle Face Court. In his short address, the Ambassador said that the connection between Mandala art, with its Buddhist background and Switzerland might not be obvious at all. However, modern Swiss culture is not limited to the cliches many people still adhere to, but is the result of amalgamated influences in a global village.
Johannes Frischknecht, in his view, embodies this "fusion" experienced and expressed by many modern Swiss artists. Cultural diversity and the absorption of often opposing influences, is actually what makes up much of the "Swiss identity". With his art, Mr. Regazzoni said. johannes Frischknecht creates a bridge between the East and the West, opening new perspectives to both worlds. The artist himself, a tall but gentle, impressive figure dressed in a black Indian suit, opened his speech typically with short silence. Silence, as he said, is the basis of all his art, and if he would dare, he would once make an exhibition without paintings, or at least with blank canvasses, since that would really represent the spiritual message he tries to get across! Johannes Frischknecht mentioned that, once the exhibition closes next week, he will visit the country and in particular many sites of Buddhist interest, in order to make himself acquainted more deeply with Theravada Buddhism, the "basis of all Buddhist schools", as he explained. The exhibition will remain open to the public until March 31 and the artist will make himself available for guided tours and interviews, so he can explain his artwork to an interested audience. Apart from the paintings, he also brought a collection of art cards, his book and Mandala calendar, which are on sale at the hotel reception. For further inquiries, the hotel can be contacted at 2715221. The event is sponsored by The Sunday Obsever. ############## Three women, three styles by Kaminie Jayanthi Liyanage
Sameera Marcan Marker, calling herself the "baby" among the three exhibited her expressions of art in the form of abstract landscaping. "Rather than having painted from childhood, I started late as an artist when four years ago I joined Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts to study fine arts and black and white photography," Sameera summed up. "Fine art is different from child art. More than the final product, the challenge for me lies in the whole process of creating art, and landscapes are a sorts of an excuse for my art." Sameera does not paint on women's issues but uses colour and lines on her canvas to express different moods of human behaviour. A firm believer in the cause of promoting women's art, she is now bracing for her solo exhibition of black and white photography.
Nilanthi, a lecturer of Fine Arts, Department of the University of Kelaniya, holds a Master's Degree in Fine Arts (painting) from the College of Art, New Delhi, and a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts from the Aesthetic Studies Institute of the University of Kelaniya. Besides winning the UNESCO prize for the Aschberg Bursary Konstepdemin Goteborg Sweden in 1998, among a national and a youth award, she "came out" as an artist in 1997 through her debut show, "Fabricated Woman" and has remained true to her style. "I want to break free from the imagined idea of idealised beauty to construct a woman as a woman and the fragments of body parts in my art is a means of that reconstruction," she says.
My works are open to interpretation and are not fixed to any particular theme... They are about my own meditation space." Having obtained a Bachelor's degree of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan, and a Master's degree from Slade School of Fine Arts, London, she now teaches in the visiting faculties of the National College's MA, Honours Visual Arts program and the University of Moratuwa. She is also a part time researcher at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
When three women get together, one can be assured of three entirely
contrasting views of life. As in the case of Sameera, Nilanthi and Mariah,
presented by the Association of Women Artists (AWA) at VAFA Gallery, Ethul
Kotte, to celebrate the 4th year of AWA. AWA 4 was their collective art
show from March 19-25.
Nilanthi Chandrika Weerasekera, from Kegalle belongs to the cadre of
fiery proponents exposing the repression of women. "My art is a
figurative fragmenting of 'woman' whom the usual layman views as an
aesthetic object," she described her analytical pieces of art.
"This fragmenting is my way of revealing the unloveliness she is
subjected to." Her art formulates abstract expressions of the idea of
femaleness rather than a real depiction of woman and that has become her
manner of expressing reality.
Mariah Lookman, from Pakistan the wife of Sameera's cousin, Muhanned
Cader, an artist himself, says, " I believe that works of art precede
words and are the space where it is possible to represent for which there
may be either too many words or none." She draws on wasli, which is
the standard surface for traditional miniature paintings. "I use this
as this surface is stronger and tougher than regular paper.
