Meditative performance sets the stage for KALA
View(s):It says much that in a crowded room, abuzz with chatter and the excitement of an opening night, a young artist could, with very simple repetitive actions still the noise.
Indian performance artist Richi K. Batia (seen on our cover page) was making her first appearance in Sri Lanka and as the gathering watched, curiosity mingled with some questioning, she glided in, a slim sombre figure robed in black, to seat herself before them and then proceed, in slow meditative movements to pick up small objects from a glass bowl and place them on her face. What were the little white shell-like objects, one wondered…..and then someone whispered, they were fish scales.
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- Artists and art enthusiasts at the opening of the Shared Ground exhibition
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- Saskia Fernando (above) and Bhavna Kakar (centre)
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- A wide array of art including textile weaves. Pix by Nilan Maligaspe
As she proceeded to so continue covering her face with the scales, members of the audience stepped forward to participate, placing the scales delicately on her face…becoming a part of her work.
A multi-disciplinary artist who experiments with the body and sensory experiences, Richi is one of the artists here from the South Asian region to be part of KALA 2026, the contemporary arts platform now taking place in Colombo.
Led by Saskia Fernando and TAKE on Art Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Bhavna Kakar (India), KALA looks to bring together not only artists but curators, collectors and writers from across the region to engage in a stimulating and sustainable collaboration.
It was at the opening of the Shared Ground exhibition among an eclectic array of artists from different disciplines that this performance unfolded. For the gathering present there was much to take in for the works of the participating artists offered much — there were photographers, textile artists, mural artists from Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka all under this one roof.
The list makes interesting reading – Vibha Galhotra (India), Marie Gnanaraj (Sri Lanka), Kishwar Kiani (Pakistan), Tashi Lama (Nepal), Kiran Maharjan (Nepal), Phurba Namgay (Bhutan), Ahmed Rasel (Bangladesh), Firi Rahman (Sri Lanka), Gopa Trivedi (India), Farhat Ali (Pakistan), Khadim Ali (Afghanistan), and Eagan Badeeu (Maldives). They are all mid-career artists whose practices are ‘deeply rooted in socio-political, post-colonial, ecological, and material research’.
‘Shared Ground – South Asia in Conversation’, KALA’s expansive exhibition is now on at Level 3, 138, Galle Road, Colombo 3 and continues until February 15.
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