Art as Trance : Artist Chandana Ranaweera

The young artist, Chandana Ranaweera, has his creative roots, deep in the soil of this land. The terrain out of which he has emerged is not only the physical world around him. The material environment nourished his body and his human capabilities. His life is a product of the rural atmosphere, to which he was born into and in which he was raised.

His soul, his spiritual being and his inner-self, are all, the result of the cultural forces that moulded him from his childhood.

A child in his formative years can grow up taking only a routine interest in the world around him. He may possess only a limited amount of curiosity about what is going on around him, without displaying a deep interest in the endless occurrences in the landscape that form the background to his life.

Those who take more than a routine interest and are profoundly animated by the pageant of life, eventually, grow up into being creative artists, men and women of reflective thought, literary personalities and exceptionally gifted people.

Artist Chandana Ranaweera has always been sensitive to what was going on in his surroundings. He is very much the outcome of his rural cultural heritage. At first, he created his works of art merely as a response to the phenomena that he perceived around him. At that stage his art was dominated by the need to record his experiences rather literally - realistically.

Only the vague trace of a personal style can be seen in Chandana’s early works. But, today, he has evolved into a creative person, with a decided perception of his own. He has acquired a mature personality, enriched with an individual vision. His latest works stand out due to his own peculiar idioms and motifs of expression.

One could sense a profound undertone of social comment in the series he has created in the recent past. His latest works are heavily focused upon themes derived from various aspects of religion and practice. The titles are emphatically religious and holy, e.g., ‘Abode of gods’, ‘Lonely gods’, ‘The Monks’, ‘Vesak Lanterns’, ‘Creative God’, ‘Fragrance of the Buddha’, ‘Stupa cult’.

In two of his works, he communicates visual impression of Drum Tatoos. The remarkable characteristic of his works is that, in terms of colour, they are all subdued. The technique adopted in the present series is largely that of the collage. In some of his telling collages the implication of sacred tradition is portrayed through fragments of ola-leaf manuscripts attached to the painting.

The forms and ways he resorts to, in order to say his say, are quite intriguing. On some occasions, he makes his point through patches of burns. A torn piece of paper, with the jagged edges of the tearing prominently visible, forms part of his collage.

The predominant pigmentation is mostly sienna, it’s reddish, the sense of the archaic and the traditional. Quite aptly, artist Chandana Ranaweera titles the present collection, ‘Tranced Reflections’. All these works seem to have flowered out of a mind, in deep contemplation.

The total series is fresh and compelling. Chandana seems to have achieved a spiritual attainment, in which the divine and the religious become his reality.

What really impresses the discerning viewer is the fact that Chandana Ranaweera the artist, has discovered a whole new world of themes and subjects from the everyday landscape of the religious and the sacred. All these had continued to exist over the ages. But, artist Chandana Ranaweera has been able to make innovative and imaginative use of this traditional material. All his works occupy small spaces. Perhaps, this will make for more concentrated viewing by his patrons.

The intricate detail in a large canvas may be missed by the viewer. But, when the work takes only a small space, the viewer may get tempted to look for possible meanings with greater keenness.

Chandana Ranaweera, is an outstanding artist who creates works with a folk-flavour. He has a limitless world to walk in, when he continues to evolve, inspired by grassroots urges.

Edwin Ariyadasa

Media Expert and Critic of Art and Literature.