Arts
|
|
|||
|
Where
words fail, there’s colour and shape Stand beside me atop this gentle rise and feast your eyes and your senses on Geoffrey Bawa's Lunuganga estate. Everything is green, vital and glistening with rain. But notice how the smooth expanse of grass has some unusual features. Scattered all around are the creations of the 17 people who are participants in the artlink workshop; a project which is the result of a collaboration between the British Council, the Goethe Institute, Alliance Francaise and the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts. Co-sponsored by the Lunuganga Trust and Hotel Serendib, this is the 8th annual artlink workshop, and is titled 'Space- in/on/within/between'. The artists began working together on September 27. Divided into three groups, the local artists are guided and encouraged by the presence of four experienced artists from Germany, France and Britain. Art has few boundaries, a belief that is reinforced by the diverse fields represented at this workshop. Take group 1, who decided to christen themselves "Spice". Michael Cross and Julie Mathias, two British product designers from Wok Media, are responsible for guiding them. They began their exploration of space with a discussion on personalities and what Michael and Julie call "hiding places”. The result of all this exploration into their own personalities brought out some fascinating results. Group 2 who titled themselves "Untitled", had Otto Boll a sculptor and visual artist of German origin, at the helm. "Talking by doing" is one of the most effective forms of communication according to Otto, who spent a considerable amount of time on artistic exercises. "I do not speak with my words" was beautifully illustrated when the group placed lamps upon a straight line of sticks that ended at the pot below which Bawa's ashes now lie. What makes it more interesting, I thought, is that they had created their line of light not knowing anything about the grave. Group 3, otherwise known as "CG Play G" chose to create a "play area" that could be used both physically and mentally. Populated with swings and ropes the "playground" helped these artists look at things from different perspectives. Marie Arnaudet, an architect from France, played a crucial role in shaping the direction the group went in. The participants spent an intense 10 days working on different projects. Amongst them is a chair, which was placed in the courtyard. The thin silver wires threaded through the seat and the backrest gave it the appearance of being fluffy and light. Another wire creation lay nearby; a ball of "confusion" with a bright flare of orange at the centre. Both the chair and the ball were Rangi Basnayake's work. Art always communicates a great deal about the artist and in that case, it was Rangi's confusion and growing self-awareness that had taken on a tangible form. Arjuna Gunaratne chose to make his own statement in an equally unconventional way. His creation mimicked a red carpet perfectly with the exception of one disturbing feature. The "carpet" was covered with shards of glass. Those jagged edges for Arjuna symbolise the corrupt and often ruthless world of politics. There was some humour there, but I could not appreciate it, as I was left simply with the twin images of blood and pain festering in my mind. Anura Krishantha made a powerful, poignant statement of his own with some burnt bamboo stumps and flowerlike clusters of leaves. He explained patiently that the burnt stumps were to him the lives lost in the war and that the blackened flowers were all that had come out of the conflict. Despite being placed in groups, most of the artists reached out to and learnt a lot from each other. Gayan Karunaratne for instance, asked members of all the groups to come and make designs on clay tablets. His intention was to fire these in a kiln, which he had constructed himself. The tablets, with their handprints, spider webs and other designs, were made with the purpose of "creating and preserving memories" for those who participated in the workshop. Most of the artwork seemed to belong exactly where it was created. However the organisers of artlink intend to give people a chance to view the finished works at an exhibition at the British Council. The exhibits are on display from October 9-16 from 9 a.m to 7 p.m. Plans to take the exhibition to Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institute are also underway.
Collective message in multicultural rhythm and blues This trio, brings to bear altered tensions and aural flights in a trajectory that is somewhat at variance with the established mainstream. Yes, Mobus' electric guitar does reveal the inescapable contemporary influence of Bill Frisell and maybe a wee bit of the John Scofield field with furry and fragmented octave jumps and leaps of twelfths in that loping off -centre manner. And Jim Black betrays the 'terms of reference' that we have come to enjoy previously from Trilok Gurtu, Airto Moreira, Tony Oxley and even Jack de Johnette (notably his work recorded on the ECM label), with that mesmeric celebration of the eclectic using a battery of devices for noise making! But it was Bassist Bica who allowed you to forget the foregoing oeuvre that we came to recognize as was validated all the way from Blanton, through Ray Brown to Charnett Moffett and McBride today. Bica's vernacular is essentially a lyrical cadence. Whatever time-keeping functions that occur are incidental to his impetus, while his double -bass sings and warms through the electric-amplifier, at times with the gilded iridescence of an electric bass and alternatively with a symphonic sumptuousness more akin to the legato of a sonorous bassoon than of a stringed viol! The effect that this collective of players has wrought is deliberate, and for that, they have earned justifiable praise. Bica appears to be the titular musical 'head' of the Trio, and his "I Think I've Met You Before" was an engaging ballad, which developed and built on the fragmentary melodic line and heaped an interesting rhythmic potential with a heady mix of 3/4 and 4/4 tempi. Jim Black stoking the dormant fire in the piece with excellent brush-work as he exploited all the crevices and crannies in the flow with inspired cross -rhythmic contributions shows how well and how tightly the group can work together. At the other end of the emotional level, one would easily have been held entranced by "Heritage" and "U profeta"(The Prophet); in the former the 'recollection' went all the way back to Africa, with slices of multicultural nuance, accelerando and deceleration, and then to Jimi Hendrix and beyond bringing us to contemporary "real" (but stopping well short of "heavy metal" and blatant Rock!). Again, a veritable multi-layered tour de force The Prophet accommodated other inputs from along the journey even stopping by for a glimpse of the hard-bop romping of Buhaina (Art Blakey) and the Jazz Messengers chic of those days. With some pleasing parodies and some potent spontaneous over-dubs as he played the guitar, Frank Mobus was able to delight and, importantly, to surprise. "Azul" is the collective identity, which the Trio has adopted; the Portuguese term has a relationship to "blue" as in Azure. However, they exhibited a prowess that affected a display of a whole spectrum besides.
- Arun Dias Semage’s
gallery of versatility and creativity He also takes the pride in being the first ever Sri Lankan to have one of his paintings permanently displayed in the UNO hall in Geneva. Semage's dream of having a gallery of his own was realised recently. The gallery at Mount Lavinia has oils on canvas, acrylics, water colours, black and white line drawings and also some non-traditional mediums like relief paintings (works on local woven mats) and handmade pulp paintings. The gallery has more than 40 paintings and they will be changed frequently, says Semage. Some of his best paintings, "Foregather", "Innocence", "Readin-ess"," Mother care", “Shelter for the sorrow less" and others are on display. The gallery also has a studio and a huge album of Semage's works. Visitors to the gallery would never be bored as Semage has made sure he includes paintings to everyone's taste. He says that up to now the response has been satisfying. "A lot of schoolchildren and foreigners come in.” He also said that some people visit in the evening not to buy any paintings but just to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. The "Semage Art Gallery" is open from 9 a.m at No.3, Lilian Avenue (Station Road), Mt. Lavinia. |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
