Karunasiri Wijesinghe

Review:

Vapi:

Mystic beauty of ancient water reservoirs

By Ranga CHANDRARATHNE

Vapi, paintings and drawing by Karunasiri Wijesinghe will be held from December 15-18 at Lionel Wendt Art Gallery.

The importance of subject matter, water and water bodies lies in the fact that water is associated with life from ancient times and intrinsically linked with the hydraulic civilization of ancient Sri Lanka which saw the flourishing mega cities of Anuradhapura and Pollonnaruwa.

Deity in charge of the tanks is Aiyanayaka in Sinhala and Aiyanar in Tamil. From ancient times, water has been an important facet in community cultural life and water has been regarded as purifier, life giver and symbol of fertility and destruction of evils. It is no wonder, therefore, tanks and large water bodies gave life to myths and folk songs and folklore and assumed an aura of mystery.

It is this mystic element that Karunasiri seeks to capture in oils paintings on canvas and drawings on paper. In the collection of paintings and drawings, the veteran artist Karunasiri Wijesinghe seeks to capture the mystic beauty of ancient water reservoirs or water bodies which spearheaded a hydraulic civilization in Sri Lanka. Water constitutes an important element in ancient agrarian society and these reservoirs eventually led to the birth of rich folklore tradition.

Looking at 19th century landscape paintings, it has been noted that water bodies constituted an important object of paintings. Waterscapes were vividly captured by Russian painters and even among Asian landscape paintings, waterscape was prominently figured in India, Sri Lanka, China and Japan.

Karunasiri has adapted ‘inter-textual’ approach deriving visual motifs of waterscape painting in Russia, Japana and China. He has also taken into consideration the spiritual and cultural discourses around water bodies in Sri Lanka. The exhibition offers novel visual interpretations of famous water reservoirs such as Kala Weva, Nachchaduwa, Minneriya Weva, Sorabora Weva, Tissa Wave, Balalu Wewa and Mapakada Wave.

For his waterscape paintings, the artist has used bright colours such as blue, green and gray. However, for his drawings, he has attempted to capture a detail account of the object. The artist attempts to capture the natural water bodies as realistic as possible. The subtle effect of light and shade has been exploited to the maximum. What is the spirit of the drawings and the paintings is the mystic beauty of these famous reservoirs which is in a way extremely difficult to depict. The exhibition is a visual fiesta for the viewers codifying the mystic beauty of water reservoirs which gave rise to a rich civilisation and cultural and spiritual discourses around them. His unique styles of paintings is inspired by long- established painting tradition of water bodies in Russia and China and Japan.