<History and The Moments of Impact>

The Moments of Impact: the art of '90's trend' in Sri Lanka.

Jagath Weerasinghe

    The last decade of the 20th century saw the emergence of a diverse and multifaceted sophistication in the Colombo centered visual art culture in Sri Lanka. A whole generation of artists equipped with a range of new ideas and concepts on art, themes for artistic investigation, and especially with an understanding of the idea of the artist as a political individual has come to dominate the art scene in Colombo. What is most interesting to note here is that a majority of the younger animators of this movement are a group of young men and women who were forced to spend their teenage years in a highly chaotic social and political environment in their rural villages and home towns. This paper intends to explore the social and political meanings, at a somewhat general level, of this new sophistication in art that gathered momentum in the mid 1990's in Sri Lanka, which is referred to here as '90's trend'.

The '90's trend': a definition
    The aspect that would recognizably describe the 90's trend is its conscious efforts to define art as an expression of 'now' and 'right here'; art and art making process as an expression of being contemporary. In other words, a majority of the contemporary artists show a common conviction in their artistic efforts by necessarily placing themselves and their creative energies within the 'current cultural moment' and in its immediate, and less frequently, in distant antecedents. This necessity to be in the 'current cultural moment' states a common idea, consciously or unconsciously held by most of the contemporary artists; that is the refusal of a metaphysical narrative that couches a wish to be universal in a theological and trans-cultural sense . This, however, suggests neither a resistance to internationalist modes nor a cultivation of a parochial sense of identity. What it marks is the formation of a collective identity of circumvallation and valorization in a malevolent social context.

    This conceptual change in approach to art has developed in a background that has been disquieted and punctured by political violence on the one hand and by rapid and mostly undisciplined economic increases gone amuck on the other. The art that has developed in this background records, reflects and recounts the sentiments and sensations of the violence and frustrations of the 'democratic politics' of a post-colonial society and the tensions and passion of an under-developed consumer society. In the hands of most of the contemporary Sri Lankan artists, art forms a conscious intervention into the very moment of living; to the dialectics of living in a society that perpetuates violence in every possible form at every possible level, as if it is the 'logic of democratic politics'. Said in other words, the art of the 90's is an issues-driven art and an engagement with issues that are directly concerned with 'living reality'. In general the art of the 90's has become the visual manifestations of the social and political milieu of the urban and rural middle class of Sri Lanka.

Investigation of the 'self'
     Contemporary artists and their works can be categorized in terms of their subject matter. It is within these categories that one can see the broad diversity that speaks for a range of complex and subtle psychological dispositions at work. Currently the most prevalent subject matter among the contemporary Sri Lankan artists is the investigation of 'self' and the frustration of the individual in the face of organized political crimes. This investigation of 'self' is also carried out in other spheres, such as in relation to certain traditional and Victorian ideas held by the society at large on 'sex', 'being youth', and 'women'. One of the interesting things that happen here is the alignment of personal pains with those of the society, and thus the artist portrays him/herself as the suffering individual on behalf of others or the society implying a self-inflicted vicarious punishment. Consequently, this is an art that shows subtle, but strong signs of autobiographical narratives. These 'autobiographical narratives, usually hold or tell us of a character that is desolate and dismal, but yet sanguine or of a character that is struggling with some sort of bondage; a captivity and a perplexity whose location and position is not yet defined, but being defined . This broad generalization of the works of contemporary artists in relation to their subject matter can embrace most artists who had exhibitions during the past decade and a half in Colombo.

    The works of Pradeep Chandrasiri, Pushpakumara Koralegedara, Sujith Rathnayake, Sarath Kumarasiri, Anoli Perera, T.P.G. Amarajeewa, and my own work shows this trait of constructing biographies as an artistic expression in its most evident form. According to Pradeep, Pushpakumara, and also Sujith, Sarath and several others, making a work of art is the surest and most immediate way of registering the sentiments and sensations of an individual who is made frustrated and dismal in the face of political or personal adversities. The painting or the sculpture is the vehicle for this activity of registering or recording the pain and 'history', before it gets normalized and de-radicalized. Perhaps, because of this, their works carry signs of immediacy and indeterminacy. One can propose that their works present themselves as visual representations of a carefully ordered chaos and perplexity. While the work of Pradeep, Pushpakumara, and Anoli are clear examples for chaos set into 'order', some of Sujith Rathnayake's works are excellent examples for perplexity presented as a rational consciousness.

    We can also suggest that most of the works of this category are indicative of individuals living with memories of violence, dispossession and despair. However, as mentioned above it is not merely remembering violence but a struggle to live above that. A struggle that allows them to surmount despair and gain subsistence in the very society that undesired their likes so much. It is probably by way of this mechanism that a need for an autobiographical approach to art has emerged amongst them. The important subtext of this observation is that they, most of the contemporary young artists, portray themselves as if they were engaged in a Narcissistic-injury, a process of self-formation. While the works of Chandragupta Thenuwara, and Mohanned Carder can also be placed within this category, they also stand apart from the rest, as their works don’t betray autobiographical moods as much as the others do. Thenuwara's 'Barrelism' and Carder's 'Night Landscapes' are among the most poignant visual statements of frustration and despair that the contemporary visual arts have made in the recent past.

The city as an artistic expression
     The other most investigated area is the urban environment or the city, and the consumer culture. Up until the emergence of the 90's trend, the city and city life and behaviors related to urbanism were not valued as points of departure for artistic explorations. Urbanism had been equated with the 'a-aesthetical'. The city was seen as a barren land with no 'beauty' or 'real life' where an artificial hodgepodge of humans and buildings had occurred. This, I would suggest, was a continuation of the early modernist discourse in art, which had positioned the ideas of 'beauty' out side of the 'present', but within the bucolic and the pastoral pasts; amongst the 'primitives'. Towards the end of the 1990's, a very obvious shift in attitude towards the city began to appear in Sri Lankan visual arts.

    A few artists can be seen working with the theme of the city, and urban life. Some have been attracted to the residues of the urban and consumer culture, making art works that focus both on the strange beauty and the evasive nature of urban culture. Works of Anuradha Henakaarachchi, Bandu Manamperi, Upul Chamila Bandara, and a few others can be considered in this category.

Conclusion
     These two broad general categories are not discrete and distinct from each other; their borders seem to merge strangely in the works of many artists. This merging can be seen in Chandrgupta Tenuwara's 'Barrelism', or in Sarath Kumarasiri's terracotta 'Trousers'. There are also other thematic trends that have developed within the 90's trend as can be seen in the works of Chandana Wasanta, Manjula Priyadharshana, Chaminda Gamage, Pala Potupitiya, and Anura Baragamaarachchi. However, in general what is very clearly visible in the works of the 90's trend is that they show an artistic personality that has been evolved and matured with a commitment to the understanding of the social and the political meanings of the works produced and the relationship and the responsibility of the artist to those meanings. In short, the 90's trend marks the 'loss of innocence' in art making in Sri Lanka. The 90's trend has made it difficult to be unreflecting in the practice of art making.

Jagath Weerasinghe, No Glory, Sarath Kumarasiri Recent Works at Heritage Gallery, Exhibition leaflet essay, 1998.
Jagath Weerasinghe, Made in IAS – Contribution of the Institute of Aesthetic Studies to the art of the 1990's. Exhbition catalogue, 2000.
There are several younger artists, such as Yamuna Kumari Munasinghe, Kusal Nanadana Gunasekara, T. Pushpakumara and a few others who can be placed within this category.
Even though I am grouping Anoli Perera along with artists like Pradeep, Pushpakumara, Sarath Kumarasiri or Sujith, she comes from a social background that is totally different from the others. Her background is that of the urban middle or upper middle class, whose world was not much affected by the political calamities of late 1980's. On the contrary the others are coming from a social background that was severely devastated by the brutal politics of the late 80's and early 90's. In fact most of the artists who are making their presence felt in the contemporary art scene have at some point in their lives been subjected to severe violent situations of human right abuse and threat. Some of them have spent prolonged periods in detention camps, which were almost equivalent to 'death camps' during that period.
Heinz Kohut, The Analysis of the Self, International Universities Press, New York, p.551, 1971.