Seeing something new
Gamini Ratnavira’s bird paintings. Pic by Akila Jayawardana
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at Crescat Boulevard, Colombo 3, in its latest series of exhibitions – Encounters – looks at how a chance encounter between two things can alter the way something commonplace is otherwise seen; how two artworks placed side by side can “reveal something new about each of them”.
The second rotation of the series focuses on how our relationship with the environment impacts us historically, ecologically and psychologically.
The exhibition’s mainstay is the collection of Gamini Ratnavira’s birds, seen in the North Central province. Each bird painting had adorned one room at the Habarana Hotel (now Cinnamon Lodge Habarana).
Between 1980 and 1983 Ratnavira completed a large series of paintings of which 131 depict an encyclopedic array of birds in their habitat. Through his work as an artist, Ratnavira was propelled into working in wildlife conservation. In 2018, he opened a research station in the Sinharaja Forest Reserve with the Galle Wildlife Association.
Juxtaposed against the avifauna is a montage of the Habarana Hotel by Ismeth Raheem, a drawing thick with detail. A stone bench from Ritigala, the secluded 1st century BCE monastery at the top of the drawing alludes to the primary source of inspiration.
At the centre of the drawing sits a two-floored building supported by rows of columns. Designed as an open plan restaurant, the building disregards all doors and windows to provide cooling without the need for air conditioning systems.
The two architects of the project Raheem and Pheroze Choksy also reforested the entire area with hundreds of root-balled trees from forest earmarked for clearance under the Victoria Dam Project.
This in turn gave rise to a significant increase in flora and fauna in the surrounding areas. The drawing shows a move away from a ‘high-rise hotel’ model towards a design ethos that embraces monastic architecture and advocates for the preservation and improvement of natural habitats.
Next is a plan of the Kandalama Hotel by Laki Senanayake.
Just like the bird paintings done for the Habarana Hotel, Laki Senanayake did 167 silk screen prints for the rooms at Kandalama, all of them inspired by the wingspan shape of the Kandalama Hotel, juxtaposing the ground plan of the hotel and the surrounding landscape with the outstretched wings of a hovering owl – well known to be Laki’s favourite motif.
Young artist Firi Rahman’s art is from a different world but takes meaning when pitched alongside the world of nature.
In his series, Rahman, depicts a ghost-like presence of a parrot sitting on a perch and the body of a parrot laid out on a single piece of mesh. The drawings are part of a series he made during a time of deep personal loss during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Titled ‘Enclosure,’ this series traces how a domestic space provides shelter and solace whilst also denoting confinement and captivity. While caring for rescued birds, Rahman also nursed his father before he and one of the parrots passed away in the early months of 2020. Rahman’s drawings explore this period in a journal-like manner through their intermingling of real events and physiological states of mind.
Also part of the exhibition were Senaka Senanayake paintings and the theme of the lotus explored across a variety of contexts and themes.
The MMCA at Crescat Boulevard Colombo 3 is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on Fridays. All events of the public programmes at the museum are open to the public free of charge.
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