Taking their creativity to a five-storey car park
A carpark. Not quite where you would expect to find aesthetic pleasure. Nor is staring at a wall what most people would find therapeutic, but this is what we find ourselves doing on the fifth floor carpark of Cinnamon Red hotel, waiting for its first ‘Red Rave Art Walk’ to begin.
Udani Samaraweera’s ‘faces’
The notion of street art has long evolved from vandalism on walls to an art movement that is increasingly appreciated worldwide.
Although graffiti as art has not yet hit the streets of Colombo, Cinnamon Red’s launch last year brought to our attention Sri Lanka’s urban art potential when Ruwangi Amarasinghe, Hash Bandara and Umanga Samarasinghe, the P413 Mob and Hamza Ahamed took their creativity to the walls of its five-storey carpark.
At their first anniversary, the hotel has added to what they began in 2014 with the ‘Red Rave’ art and design competition, launched in August this year, from which ten winners were selected to showcase their work alongside last year’s wall art.
Red Rave 2015 features a refreshing mix of artists, from art students to casual doodlers to fulltime employees who squeeze art in between long working hours. Opening our walk on the fifth floor is “CAROUSELAMBRA” by young artists’ collective, The Hermits.
A modern take on the Sri Lankan perahera, this piece carries an interesting collection of characters atop a large red elephant that they say is representative of the hotel and its clientele.
One level down, graphic design student Supun ‘Zetter’ Ravisanka takes a more in-your-face approach with three faces that also revolve around the hotel and its urban personalities.
The Doodle Dumps and their fun-filled Mini Cooper. Pix by Nilan Maligaspe
Software engineering student and self-professed gamer-chick, Lishni Thilakaratne, took the theme red and realised a lot of her favourite superheroes had some element of red in them.
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to draw on walls, but I was reluctant because I never saw anything like that in Colombo,” says Lishni.
“I think there are lots more like me. In countries like Germany (with the Berlin Wall) street artists are respected and there is demand for graffiti and murals, but it’s still very new in Sri Lanka.”
Inspired by French knife-painter Francoise Nielly, Udani Samaraweera has created two portraits that stare back at us without expression.
Their muted faces contrast with a vibrant colour palette that is “symbolic of all the emotions that make a person unique,” says Udani. HSBC employees Kavindu Abeysundara and Aravinda Perera “just wanted to do something weird” with their psychedelic street art piece.
Pursuing art as a hobby, the duo is sceptical about making a career out of it. “There isn’t a graffiti scene as such in Colombo. It’s mostly just people writing stupid stuff on walls.”
The Doodle Dumps’ Mini Cooper that dissolves into doodles (which we love!) took nearly a month to complete with the four artists sometimes sleeping at the car park to get it done in time.
However, they too are cautious about going professional and say, “People don’t want to put a price to art. It’s still undervalued in this part of Asia.”
We can’t leave out the black, white and red themed walls of Jaffna based artist Samithira Sriranganathan Sami, A/L student Stefan Pakinathan or school teacher Yogya Thalagala who offer a nice change of tone with their pieces.
Established collective, P413 Mob, also adds a new piece, “Where the Wild Things Are”, to their two pieces from last year.
While Sri Lanka may have a lot to catch up on when it comes to urban art, the Red Rave Art Walk provides a platform for local artists to express their creativity and be commissioned for more work.
One of the artists from last year, Ruwangi Amarasinghe, went on to exhibit in London and create a piece in Berlin earlier this year and we hope this year’s artists will also keep popping up with new and innovative work in the future.
For anyone else who wants to draw on walls, whether you consider yourself an artist or not, the resounding message from Red Rave’s artists is – “draw what you want and don’t worry about what people might think.”