Malinda’s study of men in robes
Malinda Jayasinghe and one of his works
Malinda Jayasinghe is not your run-of-the-mill artist, neither in his training nor in what coalesces on his canvases. This 33-year-old has knocked about in the corporate world armed with a degree in finance from Australia, before settling down to paint for good.
It was in 2019 that his damascene moment came, when he realized finance didn’t really satiate him. He signed up for an art history course at the Theertha Academy, and the latent artist (who had been doodling figures and faces dear to him in pencil) blossomed.
As a privileged “heteronormative Sinhala Buddhist male”, Malinda, a product of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, critiques power dynamics in religious institutes and institutes of power. He uses art as a form of satire to speak of these issues.
His exhibition at Paradise Road, titled ‘Men in Robes’, is striking. “Men in Robes is a series of paintings that explore masculinity and gender hierarchies within Theravada Buddhism in
Sri Lanka. This body of work draws on canonical texts, their commentaries, and Jataka tales to examine the patriarchal structures embedded in Buddhist institutions and discourse,” his artist’s statement says.
Here are male figures, swathed in ‘saffron robes resembling monastic attire, symbols of discipline and renunciation’ – ‘ambiguous, incomplete, and performative forms’- assertive and confident, with here a glimpse of strong hand, there a well-sculpted torso. It is Malinda’s way of protesting against the patriarchy in Theravada Buddhism which has marginalized ‘women and ‘other’ genders’. ‘The work thus provokes reflection on the politics of gender within Theravada Buddhism — asking who can wear the robe, what conduct is endorsed, and which identities are considered a threat to monastic purity,” his statement notes.
Malinda is far from being a brazen iconoclast, however, when we meet him in his cosy apartment down Queen’s Road.
Coming from a non-artistic family, Malinda’s only childhood connection with art were his mother’s draftswoman’s tools long ago packed away (because she gave up her career for the children).
It’s remarkable that, growing up Malinda did not study art even for ‘O’ Levels. It was through YouTube that he mastered the fine art of depicting musculature and skin with finesse – reminiscent of a Renaissance artist or, closer to home, George Beven with his island men.
Previous collections by Malinda include Influencers, which is his take on materialism and the modern greed for brands, depicting some Kandyan lamathenies (young ladies) brandishing everything from milk powder packets to Apple phones, cigarettes to Gucci bags.
Another collection, Ellena Siyalla Rambutan Nove (“all that hangs are not rambutan”) was a dig at conservative Sinhala Buddhist power.
With the Aragalaya a few years back, a political component marched into Malinda’s art. Malinda’s ‘currency notes’ (from the collection titled Currency) are real sardonic gems, notes for sums like two billion or five million Rupees adorned with kaputas (if you remember those horn-tooting days of kaputu-kaak-kaak) and those colonial fuel carts drawn by bullock, while others come smeared with bloody finger marks – all emblematic of Malinda’s dark, stark satire.
Researching prior to doing the paintings in the exhibition Men in Robes, Malinda immersed himself in the Buddhist tripitaka and came across references to pandukas who were intersexual or transgender people, basically deemed to be going through ‘karmic punishment’. “I question why this should be the case. (And considering) myself a feminist, (I also question) certain laws embedded into this doctrine – for example the restrictions in ordaining women and pandukas, etc. and then the eight garu dharmas where women have to be under a male monk even if she were eighty years and the male monk only a teenager.”
Now a professional artist, Malinda looks bright-eyed to the ‘world ahead’. Having completed a residency at Colomboscope in 2023, he has previously held a solo show and participated in group exhibitions at the Saskia Fernando Gallery and Barefoot Gallery.
Men in Robes is on at the Paradise Road Galleries from until August 14 from 10 a.m. to midnight, daily.
Searching for an ideal partner? Find your soul mate on Hitad.lk, Sri Lanka's favourite marriage proposals page. With Hitad.lk matrimonial advertisements you have access to thousands of ads from potential suitors who are looking for someone just like you.