Scribbling some chaos into order
View(s):The word kurutu means scribbles in Sinhala. Scribbling is considered as a worthless chaotic form of art. But by using the medium of 
pen and correction fluid, artist Yohan Medhanka has recreated the same process he used as a teenager vandalising his desk in school. Scribbling on the desk played an important part in the start of his drawing skills, he says. He would focus on a girl sitting in class, a study of the eye and so on.
A promising young artist Medhanka has recreated old temple paintings in this exhibition as well as 
other traditional imagery, bringing this imagery into a contemporary sphere. Sri Lankan traditional painting focuses on line drawing (rekha) and thereafter the colours are introduced (warna). This line drawing is often fine, concentrated and simple. The transition to the contemporary means that the lines are no longer beautiful, fine or ordered. The lines and the subject matter transform as the social and psychological surroundings affect the expression of the contemporary.
Medhanka’s intention is to bring chaos into a new order, presenting what he perceives as chaotic harmony.
‘Kurutu’ his exhibition is on from May 20 to June 17 at the Saskia Fernando Gallery, 41 Horton Place, Colombo 7. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tel: 0117429010