An old fashioned coconut scraper is the star of this table, deservingly so. Intricately painted by Milinda Gunasekera, it represents not just the young artist’s skill reflecting his days growing up in Sicily but also his heritage – his family owns the coconut estate, where he now lives in Sri Lanka. Surrounding the four-legged scraper [...]

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Tablescape tales

Dilukshi Senanayake talks to Renuka Sadanandan about her book that highlights the artisans, the homegrown and the vintage
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An old fashioned coconut scraper is the star of this table, deservingly so. Intricately painted by Milinda Gunasekera, it represents not just the young artist’s skill reflecting his days growing up in Sicily but also his heritage – his family owns the coconut estate, where he now lives in Sri Lanka. Surrounding the four-legged scraper on this New Year table are more hand painted bowls and betel leaves scattered on a dainty tablecloth embroidered by nuns in Goa.

British designer David Hicks who coined the term ‘tablescape’ in the 1960s, described it as “the discipline of selection”.  For Dilukshi Senanayake, there is immense joy in creating beautiful tables and ‘Tablescape Narratives – A creative journey with artisans’, her coffee table book to be launched this week reflects not just her own abundant creativity but the skills of such artisans as Milinda whom she has chosen to highlight in her displays.

Fruits, flowers and leaves: a tablescape by Dilukshi with plates, bowls and lamps by Mihiri de Silva and green napkins from Barefoot

The tablescapes she presents are under different themes that speak of her own identity as a Sri Lankan and Australian. Of the 13 artisans featured, six are from Sri Lanka: Milinda, Mihiri de Silva, Shahdia Jamaldeen, Himashi Wijeweera, Selyna Peiris and Dhevan De Saram. From Australia are Harriet Schwarzrock, Dan Lorrimer & Alison Jackson, Yanru Zhao, David Suckling, Madeleine Hoy, Jo Victoria and Martina Harvey Capdevila.

What makes this book more than a collection of atmospheric photographs is that Dilukshi is also a storyteller. In each chapter, she interviews the artisan, highlighting their journey in their chosen field and drawing on the place, she also creates an imaginative story that reflects the theme.

A New Year table: The painted coconut scraper and bowls by Milinda Gunasekera with baskets from Lakpahana

Thus we learn of potters, glass blowers, embroidery and beeralu artists, metal workers and floral experts and their very individual journeys.  Just being in the place, with the artisan, seeing how they live and work sparks Dilukshi’s imagination “and that’s what I want to convey through the tablescapes –  the stories are basically the tablescapes”.

For Shahdia Jamaldeen, her thread painting is a powerful medium to create singular pieces on the issues and challenges faced by women. For Dilukshi, Shahdia created a complex mixed media work of painting and embroidery, each leaf and flower representing a special memory, fragments from the five decades of her life. Her embroidered tablecloth is a perfect setting for the vintage crockery belonging to Dilukshi’s grandmother, now with her mother Manthri. In the accompanying piece titled ‘Storytime’, Dilukshi draws on her own childhood from her memories of her grandparents and the life they lived.

It was her mother whom Dilukshi calls ‘the original tablescaper’ who opened her eyes to the beauty of the natural world around her. In a chapter titled ‘Wonderland’, Dilukshi recalls her first memory –  her sleepy three-year-old self being carried into the garden to be shown the mushrooms dotting the lawn “which stood like miniature umbrellas, unyielding under the weight of dew drops..”

Christmas in Australia: Dilukshi at her home in Canberra, hanging crochet snowflakes, made by her mother, on her twig Christmas tree

“I get a little memory and I create a story around it,” she says. Such experiences and appreciation of the beauty in small things fostered so young she has carried with gratitude through life, and her book then, is as much a gift of love to her family.

With her father Sunil Mendis, a well known personality in corporate circles, they entertained frequently at home, with Manthri creating beautiful tables decorated with foliage from the garden, mellowed by the flickering lights from oil lamps. From her father, Dilukshi gained her love of antiques and accompanying him on visits to many agricultural projects and the family coconut estate, an interest in agriculture, a subject she would later pursue for her Master’s.

But it was first to the USA she went for a degree in Biology, and then to London for a Master’s in Biological Crop Protection. Marriage saw her move to Australia where she now makes her home with her doctor husband Sanjaya, daughters Saesha and Reshmi and their beloved Mini Schnauzer dog, Bonnie, who makes more than one appearance in the book.

Entertaining was thus second nature, the importance of food and family coming together. “Whenever people come home, I always create a beautiful table because then people know that you care – that’s what my mum did. Then I started doing stories through the tablescapes so that people would have an experience. It gives me so much joy to make them feel special when they come to my house.”

It became part of her life to create memories with her tablescapes for family birthdays or festive gatherings,  but it was only during the pandemic that Dilukshi began to give serious thought to taking it further, looking to inspire others, to use things around them.

“I just use what I have at home and I’m happy to borrow things. I hardly buy flowers, if at all, only what is in season. I use fruits and vegetables that I can cook afterwards.”

An inveterate forager, she loves her forest walks with Bonnie, chancing upon branches and leaves. Bringing nature in, is essential for her –I normally go with the season, she says. Come autumn, she will use the colours of the season -  different shaped leaves and branches, pine cones……… Seeing the autumn colours for the first time when studying in the US is a cherished memory. She also focuses on artisan products – people have, after COVID, moved away from the ‘big box stores’ to more artisanal objects, she feels, and thirdly, antique or vintage products which she treasures for their craftsmanship, play a big part in her  tablescapes.

Having always appreciated the unusual, she urges finding new uses for the disused pieces lying forgotten in some corner.

Very much a part of the community she lives in, the lemons on the book cover are from the Carmelite nuns whose convent was down the road. They have moved away but Dilukshi would do their Easter tables and they would always tell her to come and get flowers from their garden.

Every element in the book, thus has a story behind it, of community, home and family. Documenting cherished family memories for her daughters, of their grandparents and great grandparents’ lives, made it more poignant.

All of two years in the making,  with photography by Mayu Medis, Sam Cooper and Susan Foxlee, final layout by Deshan Tennekoon, designed and printed in Sri Lanka by Smart Media (Pvt) Ltd,  the book was an extraordinary adventure, says Sanjaya. Having accompanied her on a few photoshoots, he still marvels at the meticulous coordination it took -  of which picking up things in boxes, getting up very early to get the photoshoots done at the break of dawn was just one part. One chapter Wattle Day, required quantities of wattle – foraging again, he laughs.

It was all much easier in Sri Lanka, with so much support, adds Dilukshi. It helped too that all the houses featured in the book belonged to friends, spaces she felt comfortable moving around in.

Back in Sri Lanka to launch the book and enjoy time with family, the inspiration for her Christmas table this year is her mother and aunt making Christmas cake, the elements already floating into her mind: a red saree for a tablecloth, the cake ingredients as decor,  and her aunt’s recipe for guests to carry home with them.

‘Tablescape Narratives’ priced at Rs. 15,000 will be available at Selyn and Lakpahana from Monday and also on tablescapenarratives.com and on instagram: @dilukshisenanayake

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