Arts
Couple of steps forward but some steps back too
ArtWalk has a colourful history of picking unusual locations for its shows; previous venues have included a rustic warehouse on Park Street and a car mart in 2011.
When it was announced that the 2015 edition would take the catwalk to the Floating Market in Pettah we were intrigued, but not surprised. Despite a rainy Saturday evening (24th) the venue looked fantastic and drew some curious eyes its way.
ArtWalk as a concept is pretty neat. With every edition the organizers (including founder Anjuli Flamer-Caldera) present a largely entertaining line-up of designers who are encouraged to push boundaries in the pursuit of art and freedom of expression.
The organisers involve young fashion and graphic designers, artists, musicians and aspiring models, giving them free rein to build a segment that falls in line with the overall theme.
This year’s theme was LoveYourSelfie, with the show promising to showcase how the digital realm has spawned diverse markets thanks to communication via digital media.
Nothing expressed this promise more eloquently than a collection by Instagram favourite and Bakes by Bella entrepreneur Melissa Dharmadasa, who sent her models down the ramp in creations that included an outfit made of butter wrappers, a surprisingly elegant white dress constructed of cake cups (pictured on our cover) and even a skirt made of egg shells.
Some of our other favourites included segments like Chain Reaction, which cleverly used scrap material to make earrings and showcase some other interesting jewellery; Nadun Baduge, who ventured beyond his comfort zone for ‘Naked’, a series of photographs featuring the ArtWalk models caught ‘unawares’; a collection that celebrated the LGBTQ community in Sri Lanka with fantastical and colourful creations; Sathya Sen’s ensemble of wearable garments in primary colours of yellow and red; and Cellscape, by artist Shaanea Mendis D’Silva.
The night’s star was Minal Naomi, who presented a quirky segment called ‘Ethno’ that drew inspiration from folklore and tradition, capturing what the entire ArtWalk show would ideally have been-a showcase of original artistic expression.
What ArtWalk suffered from was a lack of attentive curatorial work and an exhaustively long list of segments. The show featured almost 30 designers and several misunderstood or missed the concept entirely.
Those that had clearly spent considerable time and effort orienting their work towards the concept were upstaged by the disregard of those that had not (example-a segment that just featured ‘inspirational quotes’ of the variety you’d easily find on Tumblr).
The Floating Market venue was an unusual and interesting choice, but perhaps a slightly insensitive one when it came to the vendors.
Colombo Design Market (held at the same venue in collaboration with ArtWalk) went some way towards driving some revenue to these vendors but most people who attended were more than satisfied with the offerings at CDM to bother venturing into the actual market.
Events in Colombo have begun claiming public places as alternative venues- and though well intended few of these events actually benefit or even involve those that have built their livelihoods in that area like it promises on the leaflet (for example ArtWalk aims to “re purpose under-utilized urban spaces”).
One couldn’t help but feel that the people of Pettah, many of whom watched the show from the streets, were not amused by these privileged strangers who took over their space for the night- and would, in most likelihood, not return.