Their work will make you stop and think
At the Barefoot Gallery that languid Wednesday afternoon, there is a distinct shift from the usual vibes of canvases with layered paint or abstract art. The café is alive with the clatter of cutlery and the hum of conversation and laughter, while within the gallery ten creatives are setting up their work.
By the door, is Dilsiri Welikala’s Plastic Monster, that looks like a hippy-happy gara-yaka made of plastic waste from the sea. Within, on the walls, are Munira Mutaher’s haunting photos where reality meets dreams – like the one where young boys are punting on plastic bags out at sea- a surreal image where the bags loom like islands.
Dilsiri Welikala’s Plastic Monster. Pix by Akila Jayewardene
There are, too, Dinoj Mahendranathan’s strange musical instruments: a coconut shell filled with gaungchi seeds, or the ‘harmony cow bells’ made from different-sized bells once used for cattle. And Lakshika Rajapakse’s cloth puppets – telling the story of the Bandula barb, that little endemic ruby and black fish that almost was extinct but was revived by villagers and scientists.
They are all part of Climate Positive, an exhibition to make people think of climate positivity. It is the culmination of the Creative Catalyst Fellowship, organised by Good Life X, whose founder and chair, Randhula de Silva, takes a maternal pride in it all. Good Life X, an innovation and development catalyst, wants to build a regenerative future in Sri Lanka and South Asia.
The fellowship began last year and the idea, Randhula says, was to have artists working with scientists and researchers to move away from their respective ‘silos’.
The ten went through, first of all, a two-week residency at the late Laki Senanayake’s Diyabubula estate and then were paired with various mentors to help them in their creations.
Says Randhula, “This is not just an exhibition, it’s a synergy of many different sectors and people, and it’s a message – for everybody to understand that everybody has a role to play, and there are solutions in the most unapparent places we’re not looking at. And also that the creative sector, the artists’ community, has a strong role to play…”
The fellows went to scientists’ research sites but also were exposed to the dialogues on global conservation, including films, etc. They got to know each other and their work coming from places as varied as Kandy, Batticaloa, Jaffna and Polonnaruwa.
Amidst the fellows is young Dinoj Mahendranathan from Batticaloa, a soft-spoken musician and music producer. Apart from his innovative instruments which also include wooden bongos and instruments made of plastic bottles, Dinoj created a music video and three songs utilising birdcall recorded at Sinharaja during a four-day foray with his mentor.
Photo-editor cum visual anthropologist Munira Mutaher is from Colombo. Her photography prompts us to think of different ways in which we can live together; “how do we live not just thinking of the humans as the centre but us as one of the components… an interspecies approach to the future”.
For Munira it was a wonderful enriching experience to be able to share with others the joy of creating and see their creative process and what inspires them. She realized the importance of having a dedicated space to create, she says, and also to give herself more creative freedom, having been more “contained and rigid” earlier.
From left: Dilsiri Welikala, Sandranathan Rubatheesan and Dinoj Mahendranathan
From Rubatheesan's hybrid paddy farming exhibit
Dilsiri Welikala, very much the livewire of the set though he’s the oldest, is a hotelier from Kalpitiya and created the Plastic Monster which he actually donned to walk around. Made of plastic debris, Dilsiri was treading the steps of his late mother- the artist Noeline Fernando, who did a ‘Beer Lady’ out of cans and bottles she had used. The very colourful monster’s journey was recorded as a movie as well.
Says Dilsiri, “Through this piece, I want to say, we are slowly strangling ourselves. With every discarded bottle, every plastic wrapper, we pollute our oceans, rivers, and skies, all in the name of consumption and profit. It’s time we stopped. And start doing better.”
Sandranathan Rubatheesan, a journalist and documentary photographer, after the pandemic moved to Kilinochchi to help his father on their paddy farm. With a series of photographs he documents how he cultivated side by side a traditional variety called Mottai karuppan, and a hybrid variety- the latter being destroyed by floods while the former gave a good if limited crop.
Mahesha Kariyapperuma from Kandy created two entrancing board games called Cascade Keepers and Wetland Alchemists to aid children and adults learn history and environmental science. The first game allows players to “step into the shoes of four villagers tasked with bringing life back to Sri Lanka’s legendary tank cascade system” while in the other game “the player who contributes the most to building a robust, interconnected wetland is celebrated… but every player plays a vital role in shaping a thriving landscape”.
From Mahesha's Wetland Alchemist exhibit
Kanil Dias Abeyagunawardene, an engineer by profession as well as a self-taught product designer, has created a machine that can press crushed plastic into sheets to make coasters, table tops or chairs – “anything depending on the person’s needs”.
We talk to Lakshika Rajapakse as she is setting up her soft sculpture puppet board which has no less than a hundred Bandula barbs beautifully crafted and comprises really a game for children where she shows how fish like the pethiya can get endangered by our own actions. Having moved away from the fashion industry Lakshika now spends a lot of time with soft sculpture.
The exhibition, says Randhula, is one where each visitor would walk out “feeling more connected to themselves and more connected to others”. It will help them, “make different and better choices in life about where they work, what they buy, and who they go into partnership with”.
Climate Positive is on at the Barefoot Gallery from August 1 to 8.
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