27th July 1997

Arts

• That journey to Nirvana
• From warrealism to barrelism

That journey to Nirvana

An exhibition of Ramsay Ong’s paintings will be held at the King’s Court, Queen’s Hotel from August 1-3.

When it came to the soul of the artist God got complicated. The same lump of clay, to be sure, but the essence of the divine had to be surely of a more convoluted nature - reality and the airy vision; abstraction and irrelevance; inspiration and the sadness of simulation; a clashing, grinding, quite incomprehensible mesh of main springs and fountain heads, cogency and vigour, genesis and renascence.

Ramsay Ong: first exhibition in Sri Lanka.
For Ramsay Ong, the Sarawak artist who rises in the small hours of every morning to look upon the downsweep of Hantane and a Kandy that breathes heavily in sleep after a driving day, this is the time of peace. The "wee hours" as he says, when the dark sky and the darkened city hold hands and the air has a musky champagne quality that switches on thought and remote control inspiration.

Ramsay Ong came to Sri Lanka two years ago. In the lobby of the Queen’s seated before the charming and most lovely Thanuja (the hotel’s new lobby manager), he told me he was a "registered Buddhist" in his native land. A registered Buddhist? Yes. The simple handle. The world asks at times, what are you? And he says, I’ m a Buddhist..... registered. It satisfies the census taker.

Ramsay, happily, wasn’t quite satisfied. Buddhism is too vast a philosophy to be so easily, so self servingly dealt with. Even as he drew from the fire and the frenzy of his artist’s soul, he had to bring his art to bear on what he surely was. No, he wasn’t satisfied being merely "registered". After all, he was an artist and, as he said with a charming mischievousness, who is the artist who is ever satisfied?

"I came to Sri Lanka - the only land where I could see Buddhism in its real sense. In action , you may say."

"What were you really looking for?"

He looked earnestly at the doors, watched them swing open and shut as guests walked in. "Open doors", he murmured, "doors that had to open inside myself". Yes, to Ramsay Ong, Sri Lanka was so appealing. Here was philosophy in motion. Suddenly he could say with conviction that he was a Buddhist, walking the Buddhist way. Registered? Forget it!".

Some of his most gripping works are the landscapes of his own mind, tingent, flaring , vitreous, intense in revelation. He admits that he was entering a "dark phase". Almost nocturnal, you would call it, sombre and cinerous. "But as you grow older you think more... depth brings its own sense of darkness."

Happily indeed, he came here and found , above all , a new radiance ‘I can’t really explain it. Above all, it is the sense of peace and even the sky , as I look up to it, is of an unimagined hue. I see the rain on the hills, the grandeur of ancient stone , the embrace of the rain trees and Indian lilacs and the pinnacles of the stupas. No I think it is this balm we call peace".

On Friday , the first of August , Ramsay will bring before us his vision of the Sri Lankan way of life . His exhibition of one hundred paintings will be mounted at the King’s Court of the Queen’s Hotel, and will go on till August 3 He calls it SAMADHI and whether stylised , or a natural homage to the true inner peace of this island , his theme is largely Buddhistic, bringing alive the spirit , the doctrine , the outward form , the inward grace that haunts his every work.

In these times when we all stand before our gods, seeking for that salve of soul , Ramsay, painting his heart away in his little Hantane studio , offers us the elixir, lovingly captured on bark cloth paper board and fabric.

The exhibition will be declared open by Kandy’s mayor , Harindra Dunuwille, and an honoured guest will be Major Ranjit Ellegala, Basnayake Nilame of the Kataragama Devale. It will be a shame to miss it. For three days , at the King’s Court of the Queen’s there will be a new pulsebeat, that breath of true artistic splendour and, above all, Samadhi.

Gentle Sri Lanka, how fine it is that there are still the artists of the world who float upon the waters that carry us to Nirvana.

-Carl Muller

From warrealism to barrelism

Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s exhibition of paintings "Barrelism" will be held at The Heritage Art Gallery, 61 Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 7 from today to August 3.

To us , the immediate perceptive onlookers our living space has been gradually taken over by barrels. In the city of Colombo , barrels have gained such prominence like no political issue has.

Before 1983 , barrels played a different role . Then roads seen with rows of barrels blocking mobility was a sign of road development . To day, roads strewn with barrels, epitomise a new socio political reality . The political significance of this phenomenon is war.

Barrels have contributed to the construction of a frightening reality that they are a permanent, organic part of the life and what more, a state of nature ! Life has returned to normal, thanks to the overwhelming presence of barrels! This is horrifying ! it is shocking to see barrels invade our private space, our consciousness.

This phenomenon resulted in my giving expression to a larger installation of barrels. The main purpose of this present project is to construct a "third eye".

Logically speaking , art is a creation of an artist established and brought forth in to the social domain. Thereby, the space is provided for appreciating diverse works of art. Visual media is represented through the galleries . Coloured barrels displayed at isolated points cannot necessarily be held up as work of art ! It does not suffice merely to transform a barrel into a work of art or to claim ownership . Art should be baptised and kept in galleries.

Barrels inspired me to construct my new concept of ‘Barrelism which is a branch of Warrealism.

Warrealism is central to this concept.

The two original "Warrealism" paintings were exhibited from 12-22 of February 1997 at the National Art Gallery, when warrealism saw its expression in public for the first time . One of the paintings exhibited was of dismembered figures in camouflaged, battle scarred colours with walking sticks which were hidden in colour patches . I publicly declared the concept of Barrelism for the first time on May 10 1997. This was at the International Artists Camp.

-Chandraguptha Thenuwara

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