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With her
current exhibition, Quest , Sri Lankan artist Anoma Wijewardene provides
a multi-media tour de force. The exhibition combines digital art with
provocative words, music, performance and video installation. Quest
offers “a glimpse of what is possible if we work toward peace and
healing.” Quest will be exhibited for a short time only at The National
Art Gallery, Friday 2nd – Sunday 4 June, 2006 from 10-6pm . Admission
will be free.
Quest , which has been three years in the making, is the internationally
recognized artist’s first exhibition of Digital Art. The installation
stems from Anoma’s travels throughout Sri Lanka , from Jaffna to Matara
to Colombo , and depicts the struggles of ordinary Sri Lankans in the
face of both natural and man-made disasters. Some of the images have
barely been altered. Others are layered, fused, blurred, and sharpened.
Quotes from philosophers, politicians, authors and ordinary citizens
create a dialogue with the images. The quotes are in all three
languages. Within an adjoining space, a multi screen video installation
incorporating performance art is on continuous display.
“This collection embraces the medium of Digital Art and Video
Installation and incorporates elements of images, colours, words, sounds
and movement.” Anoma says. “Digital photographs are deconstructed,
layered, and manipulated. They range from stark reality to the surreal.
Some images of devastation are transformed into images of harmony - a
glimpse of the possible.”
At a time of declining hopes, Anoma offers a call for reconciliation
that is both poetic and accessible. Together the words and images form
an invitation to action, for each of us to take responsibility for our
part in beginning the process of healing. While this project began with
the ceasefire agreement of 2002, its message now feels woefully urgent.
Quest will be on display Friday 2nd – Sunday4 th June only, at The
National Art Gallery, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07. Admission
is free.
Quest , by Anoma Wijewardene, is sponsored by Deutsche Bank, The
American Center, Brandix, Flict(Facilitating Local initiatives for
Conflict Transformation), and the Asia Foundation. |
