Arts

Artist who speaks the language of colours

by Prof. Chandima Wijebandara

Kalasuri Jayasiri Semage's latest art exhibition titled 'New Space' will be held from March 15 to 17 at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, Colombo 07.

In his long journey of expressing his aesthetical beautiful dreams, Jayasiri Semage has mastered many styles. He started his voyage with his version of Ajantha-Sigiri Style, painting beautiful in girls rhythmic lines. Even of those early days, he impressed his identity on the tradition so that one could identify his female figures, flored motifs and decorative creepers etc. as of his creations.

Today he has developed several styles of painting, still having his roots in the eastern art, yet drawing much inspiration from modern school of art. He of course, does not imitate anyone, neither claims to belong to any particular school. His art, as a matter of fact, deserves to be called a melting pot of all good achievement in the world of art.

Art, according to Professor Yagi Koichiro is an individual's search for identity. It is the most powerful and the same time universal language in which one reproduces ones grasp and digestion of visual objects under the sun.

And, therefore, an artist who has a special style implies a unique absorption of reality and an unmatched eloquence. Jayasiri Semage is one such artist who reality deserved to be called Kalasuri the title that President of Sri Lanka awarded him.

Semage is maestro of line. Line seems to be at his command at the very moment he wants. It is true that he handles shapes of colours too with the same affectivity yet, most of its works is dominated by line.

Those who are obsessed with modern art may look down at line-dominated traditional art. But everyone knows that only a highly gifted and well-trained artist can handle lines creativity to express aesthetic sentiments.

Semage has a knack for line-manipulation, which pleases the taste of those who love oriental tradition of art.

Like poetry, music, literature and even dancing, painting is yet another medium of expressing aesthetic experience. So a successful painter is a poet who can transfer poetic impression into picture.

Semage experimented transferring Ven. Sri Rahula's Selalihini Sandesaya into dots, lines and shapes with immense success. And a poet, I am sure, will do justice to Semage if he tries to transfer his paintings to poems.

The use of colour by Semage is also expressive of his own sentiments. The frequent use of subdued and subtle colours depicts a non aggressive and peaceful spirit.

His colours do not compete each other for prominence, thereby irritation our eyes. This rather mature and pacifying effect reminds us of Zen aesthetic concepts like shibbumi.

One finds rather faded and antique looking colours and non extravagant shapes bringing subtle and rich experiences in what is called Sabi and Wadi in Zen.

A serious analysis of Semage's art may have show a gradual maturity in his style to this extraordinary refinement.

Political cartoonist's exhibition and book launch

Veteran Political Cartoonist Shantha K. Herath's book containing political cartoons titled " Collection of Political Cartoons" 2002-2007 will be launched on March 6 at the Harold Peiris Gallery.

Exhibition depicting his work will also be opened on the same day and will continue till March 9 (Saturday).

Shantha was associated with newspapers as a school boy and during the past 26 years, he has mastered the delicate features of art in newspapers majoring in cartoons, caricatures, illustrations and political cartoons.

His collection " Collection of Pocket Cartoons' was published in 2003 by Sooriya Publishers and his second publication titled " Collection of Political Cartoons" has been published by Godage Publishers.

The Oscars had a strong foreign accent this year

by Dan MacMedan

And the winners are... from all over : Best actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Britain/Ireland; best supporting actress Tilda Swinton, Britain; best actress Marion Cotillard, France; best supporting actor Javier Bardem, Spain.

Oscar seems to have something against American actors this year.

Or does the foreign-born sweep of the Academy Awards reflect the growing globalization of the film industry?

For the first time since 1965, all four acting Oscars handed out Sunday went to non-Americans: Britain's Tilda Swinton, Britain/Ireland's Daniel Day-Lewis, France's Marion Cotillard and Spain's Javier Bardem.

Plus, the awards for original song and score went to an Irishman, a Czech and an Italian. Awards such as art direction, costume and makeup also went to Europeans.

"The great American institution of Oscar night has been hijacked by foreigners," comedian Chelsea Handler joked on her late-night talk show on E!

"Why is the academy so against Americans? Why do they hate our freedom?"

Media art

Florian Thalhofer "German media artist with his project iStoryBox Florian Thalhofer will make a presentation on Media Art titled iStoryBox tomorrow at the Goethe Institute or German Cultural Centre at 4.00 p.m. istoryBox is a media art programme that was developed during an Art-in-residence project of the Goethe Institute in Cairo.

With two computers Thalhofer will show the interactive media art work. For creating his art work, he collects information in diverse ways; He films and take photos, tells stories, listening people telling stories and finally pus all gathered information in a convincing art project.

However, results won't be shown as a movie; it is rather an inter-active exercise. By using computers, visitors will have the opportunity to gain access to the storyline and to optic experiences via muse click.

For this project, Thalhofer has created special software to create data base narratives which makes it possible to see five art works; (7 sons), (LoveStroryPropject), (13terStock), (Klein Welt), (Korsakow Syndrom).

Florian Thalhofer, the German artist invited by the Goethe-Institute Sri Lanka for iStoryBox and the Artlink workshop, was born in Bavaria in 1972.

For the last few years he has lived and worked in Berlin and received several awards in the field of multimedia, for example the Multimedia Transfer Award 2002, the Reddot design Award 2002 and the CYNETart - recognition 2001. He is also a documentary film maker who lives in Berlin.

He invented the Korsakow System based on the principle that in reality things occur simultaneously rather than in a succession. With this interactive software, Thalhofer has conceived an effective non-lineal way to tell stories that utilizes the computer as an ideal medium. He is the recipient of many awards such as literature digital, the Reddot design award and the Werkleitz Award.

Florian Thalhofer also worked as a guest professor at the German Literature-Institute in Leipzig and at the University of the Arts Department of Experimental Media-Design in Berlin.