Log into digital aesthetics

By Laila Nasry

For over a week, nine artists, mostly photographers from both here and abroad, participating in the Artlink 2001 International Artists Workshop gave vent to their imaginations, conveying ideas both radical and thought-provoking via the unconventional mode of computer screens, printers, scanners and overhead projectors. The themes centred around the town of Dambulla where the camp was held, were diverse. The hidden issue of rape in our society, harsh street life in sharp contrast to the protected life of a student, the commercialisation of Dambulla, childish innocence... The mind blowing world of technology had been experimented and explored, to the maximum evoking mixed reactions in its users. 

Well-known artist Laki Senanayake takes a break at the Artists' Camp. Pic by M. A. Pushpakumara

Digital art is very much part of Dhanushka Amarasekera's life. Her work in an advertising agency revolves around graphics, moving images and digital photographs. "It's a tool. Just like the paint brush." But she's quick to add, "it will not take the place of the fine arts." Dhanushka is a firm believer in the fact that art is what you make of it. Pointing out that the number of mediums available have made artistic expression all the more interesting, she adds, "It's just like anything else. You've got to use your imagination."

His digital camcorder captured two contrasting worlds. The harsh reality of everyday street life interspersed with dreary schooldays. But Peter Neusser from Germany missed the physical element photography offers. "It's just the brain, you don't need the body," Peter says of digital art. Tired of sitting at his laptop for hours he says, "I wish I could go back to my dark room." 

Joy Gregory is a teacher of photography in Britain. For her, art is all about ideas and not about media. "Artists must work with whatever tool that is in their kit." Digital art, she says, will soon emerge as an art form in its own right. She is of the view that people have already been exposed to the digital world. 

Portrait photographer Kushantha Hewapathirana uses digital art to improve the quality of his work. "I stick to the original but enhance it by playing around with the light, shading it in places ."

But for famous French photographer Phillipe Fabrey using digital art to enhance his photography is against his ethics. Having captured on lens beautiful scenes of Balouchistan and the Indus which were later printed in a series of books, he believes in taking and retaking a photograph over and over again till he gets it right. Taking a photo and then digitally erasing the telephone lines, which happened to run across it, is not his style. "I'm in this camp just to see what digital art has to offer," he says simply. 

Colours of a family trio

By Ruwanthi Herat Gunaratne

Nirmali Jayasekera was a pupil of Gate Mudliyar A. C. G. Amarasekera who instilled in her the traditional forms of painting. "The influence of the old masters is still present in all my work," she says. Nirmali concentrates more on soft pastels, watercolours and landscapes. "I've yet to work up enough courage to do a portrait," she smiles, "but I'm getting there."

Daughter-in-law Saumya started experimenting with colour at a very tender age and studied under Mrs. Lathifa Ismail. "Thanks to Aunty Lathifa my work is my own creation, it's very individual," she says. A qualified lawyer, Saumya teaches arts and crafts at the Lyceum International School. "Painting and practising law is so different," says Saumya, "But I've now given up my practice entirely and my concentration lies solely on art."

Saumya experiments mainly with oils, watercolours and the 'palette knife'. That involves using an almost spade like apparatus to spread the paint, so that the colours start to blend into each other and a whole range of new colours form the layer in between. "My work is very simply an experiment with colour," she says.

Sarala, 12, started to put paint to paper at the age of three. Unlike both her mother and grandmother, Sarala focuses on animals. Birds, dogs and her latest craze, leopards. 

This art exhibition is in a sense, a celebration of art through the eyes of a grandmother, a mother and a daughter.