Public art that will get you thinking
The British Council’s latest effort is to draw attention to a few pressing issues in society. Project Social Canvas has brought together experts both from the inside and outside of the British Council to fill public places with pieces of art. Not just any art, as Director Arts, South Asia Shreela Ghosh puts it “thought invoking installations that will get people thinking about social issues.”
By no means claiming art is the missing link to getting persistent social problems solved, she said, “What if art is in fact the answer?” Equally optimistic artists, academics and curators gathered to mark the start of the project on July 18. The artists were a part of a four day workshop conducted by Director at Modus Operandi Art Consultants UK, Vivien Lovell.
Lovell who is a Hon. Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts specializes and even lectures on how artists have made use of public spaces. As the keynote speaker of the evening, she shared a stage with a variety of other speakers from various disciplines coming together to start Social Canvas.
Founder and Director of Collective of Contemporary Artists (CoCA,) Poornima Jayasinghe has never been interested in the narrative side of her work. It has always been about the process. “Evolving pieces of art” are what she feels intrigued by which is strongly reflected in her style. Getting the public audience involved to interact with her art has never been a problem for Poornima who has in the past exhibited simple yet powerful public installations. Drawing from her previous work she shares that inspiring thought could even be as simple as installing a giant metal cage that people walk through.
Introducing himself as “not an artist” Nalindra Godakanda, Director of Octopus Ink, divulged that art to him ordinarily was like the investing stock market or buying a dog- useless without a sound pedigree. However finding great purpose and constant reviving of thought by his favourite artist, Banksy, he shared that this was perhaps the potential art had. Fittingly he felt that the ability of the best artists was to challenge thought-an exercise the project hopes to inspire.
For Eranda Ginige of the British Council, Social Canvas could not have been a timelier effort. Having just introduced the concept of Social Innovation to Sri Lanka earlier on in the year he feels connecting corporate entities to artists could strengthen the outcome of sustainable solutions to social issues.