Beware: Wet ink!

by G.R. Constantine

The epistemic break that dislodged Sri Lankan art from its modernist idiom of art-thinking and art-making came about in the 1990 decade with the 90s art trend which allowed a critical way of approaching visual art and its art-making processes.

Modernism in Sri Lankan visual art, on the other hand, was ushered in by the 43 Group, a radical and outward thinking group of artists who made creative intrusions into the existing traditions of art-making established within the British academic art protocols and practices by incorporating interpretations of selective elements from European Modernism and local art traditions fused in their art.

Although Sri Lankan art’s dislodgement from the 43 Group’s modernism allowed contemporary thinking and practices to emerge in the 90s Art, contemporary art has much to be indebted for making the boundaries of visual art porous at these early stages where Lionel Wendt did what he did with photography and Justin Daraniyagala did what he did with painting.

Violence

From the early ‘80s, the change of socio-political contexts and the overwhelming memories of violence in day to day life brought about a major shift in the contents and expressiveness of all forms of arts and literature in Sri Lanka.

For almost three decades a single week did not pass without an incidence of violence, and the media bombarded their viewers and readers with news of violence on a daily basis.

This had a major impact on visual art production in the ‘90s and the decade that followed. In the visual art scene, this point of departure was marked by Jagath Weerasinghe’s trend-setting 1992 exhibition ‘Anxiety.’

This was followed by an array of young artists whose art thematically explored anxiety and anguish in paintings and other forms of visual arts. This context gave rise to the installation art and performance art practices in Sri Lanka.

With the end of terrorism in 2009, though numerous political conflicts and crises remain unsettled, people are experiencing a new wave of development in a relatively calm environment. A new era of cultural ventures has dawned as evidenced by art biennales, dance platforms, music festivals and literary festivals which have become a regular feature in the cultural diary of Sri Lanka.

In keeping with the trends of globalisation, photography and hyperrealism, multimedia installation art, new media creations and digital representations have gradually found their way into the consciousness of Sri Lanka’s art viewing public.

The hybrid forms of art practices fusing a multitude of art forms are increasingly being adopted by artists since recent times. This was quite evident in the Colombo Art Biennale held in 2014 with the virtual absence of pure paintings (without fusion) in the whole biennale.

The use of new media is not a new phenomenon; it has been practised by various artists for a long time. However, there certainly is a pronounced surge in the use of mixed media and new media by artists in their art productions in the recent times.

Economy

The impact of the liberalised economy and globalisation since the opening of the Sri Lankan economy in 1977 is evident in contemporary Sri Lankan art. This has the potential to gradually propel Sri Lankan art from being ‘ethnic art’ to global art.

The ‘New Media Art’ has slowly started to emerge in Sri Lankan art scene. Pradeep Thalawththa, Jananda Laksiri and Danushka Marasinghe are from the younger generation of multimedia/IT competent artists who have already shown promise in taking the Sri Lankan art to a new level.

However, its financial constrains remain the main obstacle in moving towards full scale ‘New Media Art’ practice as most of the art products of this genre are non-sellable art with high cost involved in its production. Corporate sponsorship is the key to the further development of art in Sri Lanka.

In this backdrop a group of artists who have been active from the ‘90s onwards in the Sri Lankan art scene presented their recent works using digital technology in art production in this exhibition appropriately titled ‘Beware: Wet Ink’. Marcel Duchamp used the phrase ‘Beware Wet Paint’ to remind us that it takes time to judge the worth of work.

True to this statement the art products at this exhibition were experiments in the way artists used their art methodologies, and had opted to go beyond their comfortable boundaries of art-making.

The art works presented in the exhibition were from wide variety of themes and styles. Pradeep Thalawaththa’s work titled Diyatha Uyana depicted the artists struggling underwater holding a picture of ‘shrine of the innocence’ which was demolished to create the Diyatha Uuyana in the process of development. This was a very powerful work to illustrate how history can be submerged and forgotten in the process of development.

Identity

The ‘identity’ issue was analysed through a photo performance of Bandu Mananperi under the title “Me and myself”. This work showed the naked back of the artist with the reflection on the mirror showing the artist wearing underwear. This is perhaps an effort to portray that the identity that we assume is actually a reflection about ourselves that we learn from other than our actual self.

Jagath Weerasinghe and Constantine used artistic intervention on familiar war pictures to bring about a subtle political commentary. Pala Pothupitiya presented a massive work where he critiqued the commercialisation of cultural symbols. Anoli Perera, Dominic Sansoni, Laki Senanayake, Pradeep Chandrasiri, Jananda Laksiri, Menika Van Der Poorten, Pushpakumara, Danushka Marasinghe, Thisath Thoradeniya, Sarath Kumarasiri and Anura Kirishantha were also represented in this exhibition.

In many ways, ‘Beware: Wet Ink’ represented as connoted in the title of exhibition itself, an element of surprise, an unexpected and above all a ‘newness’ of a trope Participating artists represented different generations and genres in art; but they were united in their quest to explore a relatively new medium in their creative process. that is still in the process of grasping and mastering by the artists and the audiences.