Colombo Sri Lanka (Commonwealth Union)_2022 has been a tumultuous year for Sri Lanka and that’s putting it mildly. Hot on the heels of a worldwide pandemic, a catastrophic economic crisis brought the country to its knees and a never before phenomenon of people taking to the streets in their hundreds of thousands demanding systemic change, in a backdrop of unrelenting queues for basic essentials, 13 hour power cuts and spiraling indicators in malnutrition, hunger and poverty.
For an artist like Layla Gonaduwa who has always used her art to confront herself against societal politics and perception, historical narratives, memory and ecology, the last year has been one of frustration and infinite questions. Frustration because she was away from Sri Lanka as it went through throes of pain, anger and wrath at their leaders and being unable to be a part of the reverberating pulse of the ‘Aragalaya’ or people’s protests. But for some clarity to all those infinite questions that rolled around in her head, she turned to the only medium she knows – her art!
An interdisciplinary artist who has in the past used a multiplicity of text based installations, diarized drawings and writings, sculptures, enamel, woodcut and print, this collection began with paper installations. “Its singular fragility, yet strength and visibility collectively intrigued me. I thought it clearly conveyed my sentiments regarding the uprising,” she says of each two layered installations where flat strips stand upright together, making a new surface, showing tiny clear and visible colour points when grouped. With each pen stroke hitting the paper on which the strip rested leaving a mark, that paper with thousands of marks became the base for corresponding drawings.
Layla, who has exhibited extensively in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, left Sri Lanka having launched her last exhibition ‘Facing Maha’ in early 2022 which was the culmination of the Pro-Helvetia Residency she was awarded in 2020. Having completed her work at the tail end of the pandemic, she figured she could leave Sri Lanka with little to worry about. Hence, when the crisis hit, she remained in situ, out of the country, unable to return and be a part of history in the making.
However, extensive travels within the country for Facing Maha helped greatly for this collection where she graduated to simple Sri Lankan landscapes in Acrylic on canvas. “Symbolic signs of repression were placed within the vivid scenery that is this Paradise – Out of place, incongruous,” she explains. “Even if it was noticeable at first glance, one moves past it to admire the beautiful landscape. We shut it out. Delete it. Ignore it to enjoy the rest on the canvas. We make peace with it however uncomfortable it makes us feel.”
As a wrap up to the collection in which Layla also put her thoughts down in verse which run parallel to her works, she used images from a news agency that recorded the Sri Lankan crisis. “I cut those images into strips and wove them together in an attempt to create landscapes. The original imagery was distorted. In its place now lay a strong tight weave of many images of varying content.”
For Layla, this 58 work collection was the only way she could express her frustration and her thoughts. “Waking up each day to the Sri Lankan news was traumatic; it was a traumatic year. For me, the frustration that came from not being part of it, even doing everything I could from afar, was greater. Seeing what was going on was really harrowing – it was a really terrible experience.”
While there have been suggestions that Layla should exhibit this collection outside the country, she begs to differ. “It has to be first be in Sri Lanka at whatever cost. We need people to look at it, and to look at themselves.”
Layla Gonaduwa’s exhibition is on at the Barefoot Gallery Colombo 3 Sri Lanka until the 14th of January 2023
