A look back at the paths explored
View(s):
Tilak Samarawickrema in discussion with Danya Udukumbare and below, the audience at the auditorium
Tilak Samarawickrema speaks on ‘A Voyage in Sri Lankan Design – Art, Craft and Architecture’ in the fifth SLIA BAP Research Lecture series
The Sri Lanka Institute of Architects’ BAP Research Lecture on July 4, began in dramatic fashion, but given that it was by renowned architect Tilak Samarawickrema on ‘A Voyage in Sri Lankan Design – Art, Craft and Architecture’ that was no surprise.
Those familiar with Tilak’s work over the years know well his distinct style but to see the digital animation of his textile aesthetic, the images moving and merging to create fantastic new forms was arresting indeed.
Tilak’s lecture at the SLIA auditorium, fifth in a continuing series by the BAP (Board of Architectural Publi-cation) featuring veteran architects, drew an interested audience of senior architects and students, guests including Italian ambassador Damiano Francovigh.
SLIA President Rohan Bandara Herath welcomed the gathering and BAP head, Archt. Susil Lamahewa in-troduced Tilak, his one-time lecturer. Then in a carefully compiled presentation with video clips and images, Tilak traced the paths he had explored at different times in his life – his work in art, design and architecture –the latter highlighting the Mihila green factory for which he was shortlisted for the Bawa award and even his futuristic design for a monument to fallen soldiers.
Tilak’s story has been well documented: The young architecture student at the Katubedde campus (as the Uni-versity of Moratuwa was formerly known), his early stint under Geoffrey Bawa at Edwards, Reid and Begg and foray to Italy on a scholarship from the Italian government where exposure to the world of European art and cutting edge design gave him greater awareness and confidence in his own skills, his return to the island, work with the National Design Centre to give rural artisans from all across the country a greater refinement of design (later highlighted in the Shilpa exhibition), his tapestry work with the weavers of Talagune that travelled the world, his noteworthy architectural creations and the delicately wrought wire sculptures – each a saga on its own.
The discussion that followed with young architect Danya Udukumbare gave the audience further insights as Tilak revealed some personal aspects of his journey.
“When you study architecture, it opens you up to a totally new world, it’s not just houses and buildings, I opened myself up….I spent a lot of time in the library at Katubedde studying Ananda Coomaraswamy’s Me-dieval Sinhalese Art which was sacred to me. I studied our own culture, our mural paintings so having that base, going onto Europe, wherever I went, I did not get lost. I had my own identity. I didn’t copy anything – I got inspired. I was deeply rooted in Sri Lanka.”
Tilak’s unique line drawings that evolved from his habit of doodling were heavily influenced by Sinhalese art and culture and calligraphy the audience heard. He recalled how when he was working for Bawa and had time on his hands, he would just draw ‘all the mad things that came into my head’ and suddenly discovered that it was not just a doodle but that he was evolving a new art form. The Italians loved his stylized drawings, they found the Sinhala calligraphy very sensuous, which led him to make the animated film from his line drawings – Andare.
To the traditional weavers of Talagune, he brought a new contemporary aesthetic that enabled these tapes-tries to be taken to the design capitals of the world.
Responding to an audience question on a challenging or pivotal moment, he reflected on the time he was at the School of Architecture and lecturer Gamini Warnasuriya asked the students to make a collage with newspapers. ‘I didn’t know anything about art at that time but I spent a whole night cutting papers and de-signing a collage. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” The next day they had to hang up their creations. When Warnasuriya came to Tilak’s work, he looked at it and alluded to Picasso.
“I got the highest grade. That changed my life,” Tilak said.
Another lecturer was Roland Silva, “a great man, tremendous source of inspiration”, who taught them about the Greek agora and the Roman forum, and was to later help the young Tilak when he was in Italy.
Those years in Milan are an endless store of memories. He related how he sought out the novelist Alberto Moravia with the intention of showing him his film Andare, and even booked a studio for the purpose. When Moravia asked what he hoped to do next and Tilak replied that he would like to make an erotic film, prompt came the reply – ‘why do another one, this is already erotic for me’.
It was left to another veteran architect Ashley de Vos to have the last word: “He (Tilak) has a tremendous energy. That energy is very convincing,” he said remarking that Tilak’s innate curiosity and creativity have taken him far. “A lot of artists get stuck at one point – I can’t say that of Tilak,” he said, expressing the hope that there may be still a sixth dimension to come.
-Renuka Sadanandan
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