1st February 1998

Familian Fashions

By Yvonne Gulamhusein

A splendid evening of entertainment was presented by the young Familians of the Past Pupils Association of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, at their new Auditorium, last Saturday. Hats off to the young organisers for this well co-ordinated programme.

The event was mainly to spotlight the presentation of the first ever 'Awards of Excellence' in recognition of the services rendered by the staff of over 25 years to the school and the outstanding achievements of those who have excelled in various fields.

The special "Awards of Excellence' were made to the late Wendy Whatmore, Clare Senewiratne, Maureen Seneviratne, Mano Muthukrishna, Mary Anne David, Savitri Jayasinghe, Thelma Gunawardena, Surangani Wijendra and Vajira Premaratne.

The programme was highlighted by two fashion shows, presented by young Dinasha Alles, 'Dress Designer of the Year '96' with western evening wear and some exquisite saree fashions by Manil Pathirana of Boutique Ranmal.

The fashion shows were choreographed by Geraldine Bandaranaike. Hair styles were by Hair Connection and there was also a musical presentation by Mary Anne David and 'The Merry An Singers'.

'Dinasha's Signature Collection' was confined mainly to 10 outstanding designs in evening wear, combining classical colours of black, blue, purple and burgundy. 'Dinasha's Signature Collection' in beautiful colours of satin and charmeuse was embellished with Rhinestone and silver sequins. Fashion fabrics were with the compliments of Daisy's Fabric Shop.

The Senior Choir of the school rendered a beautiful opening and ending to the programme, while an excellent piano recital by Sundarie David delighted the audience.

The fashion show was co-sponsered by Power World.

A return to natures creations

By Carl Mullar

"March winds doth blow..." - the forceful exhalation of the air of the Creator; that breath of all Nature that surrounds us, tells us that we are one with the miracle of life, one with all creation.

March winds, blowing free, unabashed, bring us a message too: a living, poignant, yet telling message from a very vibrant lady who walks, touches, exults in Nature, and finds upon the Kandyan hills, the cool arbours of Udawattakelle, a rich fecundity of life. From these and all other "gardens" in Sri Lanka, she draws inspiration

She is so complex, is Li Migura Westphal. She is at once a dreamer, an idealist, a seeker, an artist and again, a down-to-earth craftsperson whose hands, even as she speaks, seem to be tracing the complexities of a leaf, the conformation of root and branch, the sinuosity of a tendril and the bolder sculptures of bark and wood.

In March this year, even if the winds may blow, and even if the freaks of El Nino are subdued, Li will give us the message of her art: Return to the true spirit of the Earth - emphasised through her use of all nuances of earth-colours and the material she uses. She wants to make us aware of the great legacy we are all heir to, one that has given us so much of the divine and the creative.

Li's creative acknowledgement of Nature in its many forms is also expressed by the name she gives to her exhibition - Sri Watta - the revered, resplendent garden. "Sri Lanka is so favoured by the Creator, with its endless abundance of flora and fauna," she says, "maybe this makes people accept the gift with unconcern. They are so often unmindful of the need to preserve and cherish the environment. We should all gentle ourselves to grasp the truth of what human existence within Nature really is."

Li uses sand, leaves, roots, seeds, twigs, all material drawn from the endless biological cycles of life. She gives prominence to natural details and the value she places on life is seen in her use of colours of silver and gold. She wishes to draw attention to the irreparable loss of the natural once it is destroyed. As a contrapoint to her "natural" creations, are others composed of artificial material such as plastic, with which she expresses the threat of pollution and environmental destruction. Her plastic landscapes, the witches on the beach, symbolise the threat to all life by unthinking mankind.

Talking with her in her Anniwatta home, looking over her many exhibits, I found that this German lady must surely live 36 hours a day, crowding her every waking minute with a schedule that may be impossible to those of a less positive bent. She is a multi-talented person with two professions. She has her MA in Education, studied Pedagogy, Aesthetics/Art, Psychology, Economic & Social Devlopment, in Munich, Cologne and Bremen; obtained her Diploma in Graphics and Photo-Design. For ten years she headed her own advertising agency as Art Director. During this time, art was a priority - designing posters, logos, brochures, books, stall fairs, etc., carrying out advertising campaigns, exhibiting her art products in many centres in Germany and Europe.

In Pakistan, where she worked for seven years setting up a Training Centre for Women in Lahore, she mounted an exhibition in 1991 of her own Pakistani portraits in charcoal and pencil. "The people there fascinated me, with their faces so full of character, tenacity; some soft, some dignified, some weathered like old oak. Working in that country as a woman was a big challenge."

She has received many awards in Photography/Graphics. In Fashion Design too, she won the first prize in Germany in 1969. Her many study tours all over the world have also been an inspiration to her art. India, Guatemala and Ethiopia made deep impressions and she has been always attracted by the cultural diversity that makes this world such a fascinating place. Li has been in Sri Lankas from 1993, working for various organisations and projects in her two professional capacities. "My life is balanced," she says. "I am happy to have this opportunity to wear both "hats", because my creativity receives a fillip through the project work and communication with the people here, and, conversely, my art promotes and impels the development and training concepts where I can offer training which promotes more participation in the learning process and in management.."

Her photos, many blow-ups adorn her walls, reflect her love of trees - the lordly Samans of the Peradeniya campus, so regal, so sturdy and outflung, true lords of creation. And her work? What could I say of her stylised cobra who wears a flake of real cobra skin? And the gold-touched cadjan and the dried leaves of monstrata and calladium; of the pressed parchment of alocasia and the mest of llanasu and dried coconut spathe; the dried layers of forest fruits and seeds and the floating gossamer parachutes of plumed seeds...

When Li is not busy in her different projects outside Kandy, she finds the time to walk the trails of Udawattekelle to collect whatever will eventually become, in her frames, a study of natural, eternal life. She showed me the indehiscent achene, one-seeded, hard brown pericarp. There was a bark brown lomentum, splitting transversely into one-seeded segments. "Everything about Nature can be so exciting - seeds, scales, bracts, grasses, utricles, leaves, the delicate tracery of ruptured bark. It is like a form of meditation to me.

"When I enter Udawattekelle, I give myself to Nature. I watch the animals and the birds, and I touch all that lives so profusely around me."

In her home I looked at the hurtling manifestation of three "wings" of coconut fibre cloth. A plummeting falcon? She calls it "Nose Dive". And that gold-tinted rosary of winged seeds...is it a defleshed figure, all vertebra and pelvic disc? In her workroom, a silvered mangrove swath seems to me making its own phone connections, while an adornment of palmate leaf bases make iridescent rosettes.

Leaves, too, fascinate Li - from the smaller wild tree leaves like tiny brown nasturtium saucers to the swarthy, succulent monstrata and the beautiful ribbed wild breadfruit. "Oxalis are so pretty, " she says, "and there are these stiff leathery ones that look like table knives."

"You really thrive on this," I remarked, and she smiled.

"Besides the pleasure I get, it is a lot of work and a struggle to express life through Nature, allowing us to look on it as the most vital part of our being, our true beginning and end. With Nature, every end is but a new beginning.-

There is a lot she is actually doing here, but nothing will ever stifle the artist in her (her sensitive spirit and artistic gifts which she feels are inherited from her parents). Right now she is conceptualising a video and is doing the recording and editing. She is also developing her own tribute to this island - a gloriously photo illustrated book reflecting her own vision: the untrodden paths, the faces, the places we do not see. Naturally, she will design it, lay it out herself, for who better?

Her proposed March exhibition will be her first in Sri Lanka. She will fix a date, and right now she is stretching each day to its limit as she prepares for it.

Lucky me, I thought, as I left her home. I had seen the splendour of her work. Look out for this March showing and you too will know the way her artist's hands bring to you the true spirit of the earth!

Continue to Mirror Magazine page 3 * Fantastic Voyage * The Remains of the Deck

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