Arts
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from home and coming home The duo are exhibiting their work for the first time and are eager to learn from the reactions of the audience. It was quite by chance that the two artists met and decided to hold a joint exhibition and their contexts are interesting. Kesara shows part of a different country that he has been in during the past two years while Andrew comes back to his country of origin, evokes lost memories and appreciates anew its beauty. Kesara recalls his schooldays when he spent time on his home rooftop gazing at the heavens with his telescope or digging up the garden to create miniature dams and towns. He painted a lot while doing his A/Ls at CIS, as he found it to be a way of relieving stress, turning out a series of cosmic fantasies in acrylic colour on canvas that revealed a passionate preoccupation with imagery of cosmic subjects. In them one sees cities, waterfalls and heavenly bodies, painted in bright fantasy colours. Currently, a student of Art History at the University of East London, Kesara has spent hours walking around London, which he considers the best way to see the place, and been fascinated with the architecture and the city's eclectic make-up. "You see every different style of architecture in the same area. From Victorian architecture and medieval churches to modern space age steel and glass sky scrapers, the contrasts are quite intense," he says. Londoners themselves may have missed some of the images that he has captured on photographs, amidst the hustle and bustle of city life. In some of his photographs Kesara has used Photoshop. He explains, "I did so, not to artificially enhance an image but to isolate things of interest and give them prominence." Kesara has also made some intricate drawings, predominantly ink sketches done mostly whilst whiling away long wintry nights. "When inspired I need to sit down and get it all out of my head," he says of the pictures that are architectural landscapes based on pure fantasy. Like the picture of the little hill that is a view from his window, Kesara has built up on that adding several other structures, straight from his imagination. Kesara is now home on vacation bringing with him his collection of ink sketches and photographs. Also included in the exhibition are 20 paintings, which like his drawings are his 'flights of fancy' into a great cosmic unknown. "They are my castles in the sky," says he, pointing out that he liked the idea of things that we don't usually see while admitting that he was a science fiction buff as well. "I usually paint by instinct and I rarely know what the end result will be until the last stroke. All my pictures have a sense of solitude, depicting a sense of peace and removal from the world and thereby representing a far away fantasy." Having graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, Andrew is currently training with Sri Lankan Architect/Designer Anura Ratnavibhushana. An ardent photographer, Andrew who migrated to the UK at a young age and was educated in London has travelled widely. "In Europe, US, Africa or India, in recording experiences I seemed to want to capture everything in colour, almost to a point of saturation," he explains. While studying for his B.Sc in Architecture, he had to take photographs as part of his course requirement of buildings and sites. "The course I did was artistic based rather than theoretical and we were encouraged to conceptualise," he adds. Once he got his camera he took more photographs. However at this point he decided to work with black and white rather than in colour. "In black and white you feel the essence of the photograph more," he says showing a picture of a temple in a landscape, "The shapes become more important and you do not get distracted with colours of the blue sky, etc." Having come to his homeland a few months ago he has devoted every moment of his leisure in the pursuit of serendipity in Sri Lanka. The 40 odd small, framed photographs, are his joyous reactions to the local surroundings, revealing his admiration for Sri Lanka, its people, places and scenic splendour. "Small makes it intimate and personal,” he explains. The pictures are of memories from the past captured on film, some of them taken in Matara where his ancestral home is. A few of them have become invaluable to him like the house in the Matara fort area - most of which was washed away by the tsunami. "It is no longer there and the picture is all that I have." Andrew has also taken many pictures of the new Sri Lanka, showing how things have changed here during his absence. All of them portray simple shapes with a strong theme presenting scenes that are sublime and peaceful. There are orphaned elephants (cute and sad at the same time), temples, people, events and landscapes that make up memories and new sights. Through photographs Andrew has discovered a new way of capturing what he sees and making it a personal memory. Nature
at its best According to Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Chairman of the Competition and a Director of Jetwing "Laszlo Berta's Image of a Great White Heron in flight, drives home the point that a winning image does not have to be a rare plant or animal. Even a fairly common animal can be elevated into something special by the right combination of lighting, background and movement." The overall winning image was also the winner of the Birds category. The Other Animals category was won by Nishantha Karunarathne, who captured an unusual image of some insects engaged in a chain of love! Laszlo Berta also won the Landscapes Section with a Foggy Forest image in Hungary. The Plant life category was won by Raden Jayaman for an eye-catching texture on a large satin tree. A close up of a Mosquito on a leaf gave Heshan Kathriarachchi the first prize for the Young Nature Photographer 2004. The panel of judges included wildlife photographers Lal Anthonis, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Panduka de Silva and Sarath Perera, conservationist Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala and journalist Cecilia McGuire. Rohan Pethyagoda, well-known biodiversity expert, will be the Chief Guest at the prize giving to be held on January 20. Jazz
trio’s soothing sounds to ease the pain The concert will be held on January 25, at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. This jazz trio includes Frank Mobus on guitar, Rudi Mahall on bass-clarinet and Oliver Bernd Steidle on the drums. The three players from the "Red Zone" should be counted among those who have furthered Berlin's jazz eminence. The expression "Der Rote Bereich" comes from a colloquialism, from words and phrases of the nineties. In certain circles since that time the question "how are you?" has been answered not with "fine" but with "everything's in the green zone". "The Red Zone" can be taken to be the opposite: the unfavourable, or the unobtainable. When Frank Mobus and Rudi Mahall first played together in 1992 in Nuremberg, according to their percussionist at the time a few of their pieces were "in the green zone", meaning he couldn't play them. The two changed their percussionist, turned his verdict to an achievement, and adopted the name "Der Rote Bereich". Pearl
of Great Price, not today |
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