PAKKIYARAJAH PUSHPAKANTHAN
INEQUALITY
PAKKIYARAJAH PUSHPAKANTHAN
18 AUGUST 2016 - 14 SEPTEMBER 2016
2 ALFRED HOUSE ROAD, COLOMBO 3 TEL: 2582162, 2556563 EMAIL: art@paradiseroad.lk
Though the armed conflict ended in May 2009, the people of Sri Lanka struggle to confront post-war memories and recover from collective trauma. There are discussions on transitional justice, but there is no proper mechanism to heal these collective wounds and trauma. In my work I use art as a tool for healing. My work represents the inequalities that spawned three decades of war. Building peace and reconciliation—thus, necessarily, narrowing the disparities between the communities—is much harder than winning the war. Without first recognizing the inequalities that begot the war, Sri Lanka cannot initiate a reconciliation process in any real or meaningful sense. I try to explore these inequalities through my work, and I believe that my art opens a space for discussing, imagining, and critically thinking about equalities. All my dark shades represent the dark past of my country. I use triangles to symbolize riots, war and the stolen past. The triangles also generate energy and power. They signify productivity and with this, pyramids of power and bureaucracy. I have chosen to work with triangles to criticize this very power and bureaucracy, which protects and nourishes inequality. Furniture and other figures fill my triangles. Furniture constitutes an integral space in our everyday lives and helps us sit, sleep, relax, work and study. The bed—a space where we are born, sleep, have sex—and the table—a space where we study and read—together symbolize our day-to-day happiness and sorrows, which have been shattered or burned by war. To me, the bed symbolizes pain, death, blood and sorrow because my father was murdered while asleep in his bed when I was four years old. That bed where my father died is carved into both my being and my work, which are shaped by the memories of his death and others like him. The beds are bandaged to represent not only the dead but also the wounded, disappeared, displaced and traumatized. I strongly believe that we can narrow disparities between the communities by using art as a tool of healing. By exploring unforgettable memories of death, disappearance, torture and wounds, I try to use my work as space to lay bare the painful realities of the past so that people can grieve. The more we explore the hard truths, the more we will be able to open the wounds. Without first opening these wounds, we cannot treat them, we cannot heal them.
PAKKIYARAJAH PUSHPAKANTHAN JULY 2016
UNFAIRNESS I, 2015-2016, Acrylic on canvas, Triangle 77 x 88 cm, LKR 95,000
UNFAIRNESS II, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, Triangle 77 x 88 cm, LKR 95,000
UNFAIRNESS III, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, Triangle 77 x 88 cm, LKR 95,000
UNFAIRNESS IV, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, Triangle 77 x 88 cm, LKR 95,000
UNFAIRNESS V, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, Triangle 77 x 88 cm, LKR 95,000
UNTITLED I, 2016, Pen on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 85,000
SKY FALLEN DOWN, 2016, Acrylic on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 85,000
UNFAIRNESS VI, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, Triangle 77 x 88 cm, LKR 95,000
WHITEWASHED DUNE I, 2016 Mixed media on canvas, 29.5 x 40 cm, LKR 75,000
UNTITLED II, 2016 Mixed media on canvas, 29.5 x 40 cm, LKR 75,000
WHITEWASHED DUNE II, 2016 Mixed media on canvas, 29.5 x 40 cm, LKR 75,000
WHITEWASHED DUNE III, 2016 Mixed media on canvas, 29.5 x 40 cm, LKR 75,000
UNTITLED III, 2016, Acrylic on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 85,000
UNTITLED IV, 2016, Mixed media on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 85,000
HEART-ANGUISH, 2016, Pen on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 120,000
UNTITLED CHAIR, 2016, Pen on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 140,000
UNTITLED V, 2016, Pen on paper, 21.5 x 30 cm, LKR 85,000
UNTITLED VI, 2016, Pen on paper, 21.5 x 30 cm, LKR 85,000
RED WELL, 2016, Pen on paper, 70 x 120 cm, LKR 120,000
UNTITLED VII, 2016, Mixed media on paper, 21 x 28 cm, LKR 85,000
UNTITLED VIII, 2016, Mixed media on paper, 21 x 28 cm, LKR 85,000
Unfairness: Dark I, 2014-2015, Acrylic on canvas, 67.5 X 89.5 cm, LKR 170,000
Unfairness: Dark II, 2014-2015, Acrylic on canvas, 67.5 X 89.5 cm, LKR 170,000
PAKKIYARAJAH PUSHPAKANTHAN b. 1989 Education 2014
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Art & Design), University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Group Exhibitions 2016
C/A/M/P (Contemporary Artists Meeting Point), Lionel Wendt Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2016
Collective Identity, The Text Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2016
Truth To Truth, Visual Art Exhibition About Transitional Justice, JDA Perera Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2015
Shadow Scenes, Third Colombo Scope, Rio Hotel and Cinema, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2015
Seven Conversations, Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2014
Exhibition Of Paintings, J.D.A. Perera Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2013
Mobile Library: Sri Lanka, Park Street Mews, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2013
The SAARC Artist Camp and Exhibition Of Paintings, National Art Gallery, Male, Maldives
2013
Visual Art Exhibition, The Art Gallery, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
2012
Pesappadathathu, Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, The Eastern University, Sri Lanka
2008
The Art Exhibition About War Period, The Eastern University, Sri Lanka
2007
The Art Exhibition On Small Arms Control, The Mahaweli Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka
2 ALFRED HOUSE ROAD, COLOMBO 3 T 2582162, 2556563 E art@paradiseroad.lk