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“ memory requires one to act In away that seeks in questions of both the divine and human covalent partners” ( Elie Wiesel : Night) ( an auto biographical book written by the author about his father and his life shared as a holocaust survivor)

Memorialization can be served under multitude of frame works. Contributing in facilitating reparations, truth telling ,documentation, reconciliation and as a mere dialogue between past, present and promise for future; as a being of instrumental , symbolic gesture. Yet with the amnesiac policies, principle, historicizing these subjects succumbed to chrono phage annihilations of its symbolic embodiment into a decorum of animosity.

The 2019 occurrence of the Easter bomb attack in Sri Lanka( Islamic terrorist attack on Easter Sunday ) led to a new open ended dialogue on perpetrators and victims ( weighing towards active conspiracies upon xenophobic structures) . State once again leading the country in a mission of reinstating justice as well as igniting a new form  of “ patriotism”  as a mandatory act, into its usual pinpoint analogy of servitude .

Immediacy to build new memorials within the churches that were attacked occurred as a new element . The cacophony of newly formed commissions  which carry out  jurisdictions to the Easter attack hearing , turned into a mega serial in popular news telecasts by media stations . State yet again covering their tracks , diverging the truth and playing with the amnesiac attempt of sanitation. Human rights violations , reconciliation and justice to the families yet again perceived as a mere folly.reference images ://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-ldO02Qc0PzgRZwV7u3lv-pX_meBmuOc?usp=sharing

We believe these idols , broken tarnished forms to be negative omens. Hence they are placed , buried, abandoned in nukes and corners within sites of worshipping or under trees or so dumped into water bodies. My first encounter was when the candle seller of Kochchikade church ( one of the sites demolished during the  Easter massacre ) ,gifted me the very first collection in hope of fixing them.

Collecting idols from these sites , or idols abandoned from places that maps to past locality of 1989 JVP insurrection period’s torture camps “batalanda” ( during JVP insurrection period the state carried out a brutal wipe through , memorials were never built and the entire judicial justice system failed under political agendas) , sites from Jaffna . My process of collecting carries an anthropologist overview , selecting sediments and establishing new dialogue of their identity. Do these objects formulate their own democratic identity , there are questions of their archaic presence. A new identity that meticulously frames a dialogue upon “ the attempt of forgetting” . Heinous attempt of white washing and truth telling .

Yet these sculptures carry a new formation that interlayers a formation of identity universality and tradition. The introduction of embroidery, a form of ornamentation which is part of the southern ritualistic performance tradition. Under guidance and apprenticeship under artisan Somapala Pothupitiye and Contemporary artist Pala Pothupitiye. I have begun to research technicalities in ritual costume designing. The tradition also reveals many layers of my previous expeditions into folk performances in Southern parts of Sri Lanka.

.ornamentation as a crime

“ Searching for my mother” is a series which began as a quest of inquiry to understand and revoke the role of matriarchy in the context of “ mother” in Sri Lanka. Through many layers it has been a constant struggle to understand misogynistic attempts that frame the notion “ mother”. Through my mothers memory as a key window opens new dialogues with history and identity structures of gender and sexuality in Sri Lanka .

Later on the work developed further with my urge to understand Sri Lanka’s cultural and identity blurred under its diverse history of performative studies. My encounter with southern ritualistic practices was its deep roots in these cultural diversities . Southern ritualistic art form has many lineages which connect back to the early dwellers of the island to Orissa, South Indian performance arts. It has constantly moved into embracing hybridity which could be seen later during colonial times. 

Looking into “ southern performative tradition in Matara district” ( a coastal region in Sri Lanka) which is the longest deep rooted of the three provincial branches(Raygama, Bentara, Matara). Somapala Pothupitiya has been the last artisan(Navandanne or artisans whom has mastered nine skills ) of the lineage who works deeply still with ritualistic practices. My work embarks on a journey as his apprentice to understand this tradition and maybe create a dialogue to rediscover the past which is disappearing.

sculptural forms installed within the space