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| Donald
the outsider, Donald the insider The book is important because it brings together two opposing perspectives of Donald Friend's work: an external Australian perspective which views Friend's stay in Ceylon as a short episode in a long and varied career, and an internal Sri Lankan perspective which sees him as a walk-on character in an unfolding story. It reminds us that Donald Friend was an influential figure in the Ceylon of the early 1960s and that his Ceylon work occupies a very special place in his total oeuvre. Although the book is small, a judicious choice of images conveys the breadth of Friend's work. We are shown large topographical tableaux as well as smaller ink and gouache works, sophisticated aluminium sculptures as well as simple terracotta tiles. The monumental "City of Galle", its many incidents arranged across a vast panorama of the town, is reminiscent of Buddhist temple paintings and begs to be recognized as one of the most important Sri Lankan paintings of the Twentieth Century. The small sketches like the "Tea Kaddy" and "The Sick Mudalali", echoing the style of 19th century satirists Thomas Rowlandson, demonstrate Friend's ability to capture the essentials of a scene using a deft combination of line and colour wash and offer a priceless visual record of the everyday. His experiments with metal sculpture are beautifully illustrated in photographs by Dominic Sansoni and Ulrik Plesner, while pictures of his designs for decorated terracotta tiles bear witness to his growing interest in architecture and garden design. The illustrations are amplified by excellent short texts. The essays by Ismeth Raheem and Barbara Sansoni represent admirably the Sri Lanka perspective. Raheem, a young artist and architectural student at the time, records his own indebtedness to Friend, while Sansoni offers an amusing recollection of their joint tile-making excursions to Negombo (excursions which Friend describes in some detail in diaries). Paul Hetherington of the National Library of Australia on the other hand presents a view of Friend's Ceylon portfolio from the wider perspective, recording the equivocations of many Australian critics. Donald Friend arrived in Ceylon in 1957 and stayed for four years in Bevis Bawa's estate at Brief near Aluthgama. This period coincided with a significant moment in the artistic development of post-independence Ceylon: Bevis Bawa's brother Geoffrey had just returned from architectural studies in London and was starting out in practice with Danish architect Ulrik Plesner; Barbara Sansoni had begun to design handlooms and was working with Plesner to record Ceylon's architectural past; Ena de Silva and her son Anil Jayasuriya were making their first batik designs; Laki Senanayake and Ismeth Raheem were embarking on their careers as artist/designers. Through Bevis he came to know all of these people and was welcomed into their circle. He helped Bevis Bawa with his garden projects, designing garden furniture and sculptures, he collaborated with Geoffrey Bawa, producing designs for murals, gates and doors, he helped Barbara Sansoni with her experiments in tile-making and spent time with the young Senanayake and Raheem. But Friend did not regard himself as some kind of proselytising cultural missionary. He stayed in Sri Lanka because he liked its environment, its people and its traditions and was more interested in learning rather than teaching. In his diaries he has almost nothing to say about contemporary Sri Lankan artists: there is no reference to the 43 Group and only passing references to Manjusri and George Keyt. His influence was channelled through his circle of friends and resulted from his willingness to share his ideas and show his work. To an outsider it is surprising that in his native Australia, Donald Friend has never been accorded the recognition which he seems to deserve. His biographer Robert Hughes ("Donald Friend", Edward's & Shaw, Sydney: 1965) complains that his multitude of interests and skills "endowed him with enough talent for six minor painters without making a major artist of him". It may be that he was too self critical, or that he failed to take himself sufficiently seriously or that his work simply did not accord with the fashions of the day. Whilst his more successful contemporaries were dabbling in abstract expressionism, he continued to produce carefully crafted drawings, paintings and sculptures, which had a strong representational or narrative content. With hindsight, however, he can be identified as one of a small number of Australian artists who ignored the prevailing fashions of America and Europe and sought to develop new forms, which reflected Australia's position at the rim of the Pacific and the edge of Asia. Ceylon was important for Friend because it afforded him an interlude for reflective experimentation, untrammelled by the imperative to paint in order to sell which would later compromise his Bali work. Although he was always feverishly busy with a multitude of projects, he found the time to keep a meticulous sketch book which served as the source for many of his finished drawings, and was able to work on an ambitious series of large and detailed topographical works. These were important because they drew heavily on Sri Lankan themes and idioms and contributed to the process of legitimisation of tradition which had been started by Ananda Coomaraswamy and Andrew Boyd and which would be continued by Geoffrey Bawa and Ena de Silva. During his stay in Ceylon, Friend continued to scribble and sketch in the astonishing diary, which he kept for almost 50 years. This monumental work is being published in stages by the National Library of Australia. Volume 3, which is due to appear in mid-2005, covers the Ceylon years and offers marvellous glimpses into Friend's life and the lives of his friends. It will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in this period of Sri Lanka's history. Sadly the diaries are published as transcribed texts and not as facsimiles, so that the reader is not able to enjoy the interplay of handwriting and drawing. Sample pages can however be seen in Lou Keplac's excellent book "The Genius of Donald Friend" (National Library of Australia, 2000). This present book will serve as an excellent companion to the Ceylon diaries and it deserves to be made more widely available. Perhaps if it were to be republished the authors might include a list, however provisional, of Friend's known works from the Ceylon period along with details of their location. * David Robson, Professor of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, is best known for his monumental book – the Complete Works of Geoffrey Bawa (Thames and Hudosn 2002). He has written extensively on the contemporary architecture of Sri Lanka. A
tribute that holds together diversity, vibrancy and reflection The book opens with Basil Fernando's poem "The Sea was calm behind your house" dedicated to Mr. Kuruwila. He uses a conversational direct tone to recollect his visit with his guru during the terrible times of the1983 anti-Tamil riots. Ashley Halpe's "Two Poems" belong to the genre of love poetry. In "To Bridget" the poet speaks of a relationship so uniquely their own but one, paradoxically, the reader can identify with. In, "In Dispraise of Longdistance", the bare words are powerful in their meaning. The word 'dispraise' and fusion of 'long' and 'distance' are loaded with meaning. Janakie Gunathileke's poem "In Torigo", put me right in the middle of a haven of serenity. Her prose style and measured tone easily and vividly recreate her picture in a reader's mind. In "The Marsh" Shireen Senadhira enthralls us, as she had been by the sights and sounds of nature surrounding her. There is wonderment in her tone as she surreptitiously feasts her observant eyes on the scene before her. The "Local Immigrant" by Cheryl Arnold is a story of a displaced self, the story of a stranger in her own land. She functions only as "an in-between entity" - the voice of pathos at her loss of identity is delicately nuanced. Asgar Hussein's "The Mystic" is conventional in form, but is a beautiful, thought-provoking poem. In her poem "Friendship", Dayaminie de Silva, catches the essence of a close, long-lasting relationship with her delightfully original image - a cushion. It "weathered the years" suffering "the blows and kicks" rained upon it; "when new" it was "handled with such care" but with time and "the rush of things," friendship was left to gather dust, but with the thought that it is there "Ready to prop us up". Those emotions and experiences of the 'ups and downs' of friendship are universally recognizable and understood. The language is simple, but touching in its appeal. Anne Ranasinghe refutes Robert Frost's dictum "Poetry is what gets lost in translation" with her fine, sensitive translation from the German, of the "Beginning of the End" by Theodor Storm, the leading figure of poetic realism. Her brief introduction sets within its context, his poem, his melancholic, hypochondria driven personality, and the cancer that killed him. "Lantern" by Uthpala Gunethileke, won First Prize for a short story at the Short Story and Poetry Competition 2004, held by The English Writers' Cooperative of Sri Lanka. It is written in a new stylistic manner that is unconventional and experimental, too experimental perhaps for anyone except academia. "The Garden" is an intensely moving story of Life, a meditation if you may on old age, the passage of time and the changes it brings in its wake. Punyakanthi Wijenaike uses her craft as a storyteller with skill and sensitivity. Ivy's and Ivan's sad situation is poignant but never made sentimental. The title "Buttercups" is so evocative of the English countryside, a setting so dear to her but would soon be exchanged "for long hot sleepless sweat soaked nights" in Colombo. It is a joy to read Faith Ratnayake's articulate prose, written in quiet contemplation of a place that holds her heart. "May was making pastry," This bald statement grips our attention. The writer skilfully blends in May's nostalgic memories of now and long years ago, her sadness at leaving a place so loved with the pastry she is rolling into shape. Restrictions of space make it impossible to review all the contributions to this anthology or even to comment comprehensively on those that have been reviewed. In conclusion let me congratulate Anthea Senaratna on successfully accomplishing the difficult task of editing a publication of diverse material not only in terms of literary quality but also in subject matter. Her
art, life and memories Her range of professional repertoire of teacher, broadcaster, writer, musician, art director, painter, sculptor and potter hints at her many talents. She is also proficient with stained glass and enamel as she is with pen and brush and in the serious study of religious symbolism. But it is here in her native Sri Lanka that the foundation for this versatility was laid. First, as a teacher of art to children at the school by the sea, a stone's throw from her Ratmalana home. The journey from those early days has seen her exhibiting her paintings in several world capitals, lecturing in Universities and other centres of learning, both East and West and generously imparting her knowledge to students and colleagues around the world. Her present publication is a true mirror of her multi-faceted personality. The first part is about her art - a self made, self taught student who has taken seriously the many influences that have shaped her work. Her drawings have that special appeal of the deep influence South Asian images have had on her and illustrate the original world from which she comes, portraying the powerful influence that Buddhist and Christian forms and symbols have had on her. She combines distinct and different styles in her work, some with recognizable forms developing a Christian narrative. In her paintings that relate to the biblical story one sees a delightful free play of brush and paint. The three magi are dressed in colourful Asian dress, and they are on foot, rushing forward with gifts, with the first magi carrying a white dove. Reminiscences, the second part of the book, in its voyages back to the past, to parents and a much loved brother, students and friends she has in many parts of the world, is also a revelation of the foundation laid for her versatility in later life. Of special interest are the influences other religions have had on her life as a Christian believer, also depicted in many of her paintings. The memoirs are intensely personal, but they do not slip into sentimentality at any point. They provide, as I see it, the background to her later life which as she says, "outside the runways of the predictable and ordered, has surfaced and found resolution in most unexpected ways….and no one has been as surprised as I have been.." Andare
thrills Swedish kids Priyanwada M. Banduwardana, the name she retains even now, has written a number of books in Sinhala. What caught my eye was the book she had written on "Andare the Royal Jester" in Swedish. She told me that when she first used to tell stories in Sweden about Andare, children used to listen in rapt silence and she was often asked whether there were any books about him. “Andare " has 20 small stories in a book of 44 pages. The foreword has been wriitten by film director Daya de Alwis. Priyanwada hopes to have the book translated into other foreign languages once she is able to gauge its popularity with children in Sweden. Her main aim is to build awareness of Sri Lanka's rich cultural heritage in Sweden. |
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