Art Unscaped Ep. 01 | Meet Shanaka Kulathunga | Featuring Gallery Silver Scapes & Prinseps

[00:00:57]Hello everybody. We are here this afternoon at Bikanir House to have a little chitchat with Colbo based artist Shanaka Kulatunga who's having his first solo show in India titled Silent Stories. It's been brought to Delhi by Gallery Silverscapes whose director Vicram is here with us. Hi >> and this chat is supported by Princips Indrajit Chhatti is here and I would like both of you to introduce yourself before we start talking to Shanika.

[00:01:26]>> Indrajit go first. Well, thanks to uh Vikram. Uh congratulations on the first solo show of the August.

[00:01:33]>> Thank you very much.

[00:01:34]>> And um happy to be here. We are an art research platform and uh discovery research is our forte and so being invited to a first showing of an important artist from Sri Lanka is a is a great joy for us. Thank you.

[00:01:53]>> Thank you Vicram.

[00:01:55]>> Hi. Uh we are a Delhi based art gallery silverscapes uh progressing now and trying to become more South Asian based. So Shanaka, we first saw him u in we had a show about a year and a half ago where we had a work of his and we invited him and he was kind enough to come to us to Delhi and attend the show and everybody there who came to the show raved about that one work of his that was on display and it got sold. uh seeing the kind of response I got I thought it was a good idea to have a solo of Shanaka in India and here we are with silent stories. So we are now going to talk to Shaneka about the work that was a seascape work that was a seascape >> and uh some examples of those works can be seen upstairs but before that uh Shanica >> can you tell me a bit about the show itself because there are so many different genres that we see here and I'm assuming that everybody who is watching this is familiar with the works that are on display. So there is one room dedicated to the works on magic realism and that's in complete contrast to the works right opposite which are the seascapes and landscapes. So I was reading somewhere that you uh really wanted to do portraits when you were growing up. You first you began with animals and then started making human portraits. So is there some kind of that childhood memory that you bring into these works of magic realism?

[00:03:24]>> Yeah. uh when we go back to my childhood I used to do many animals actually I didn't it's like I was not interested in painting >> I just wanted to keep some records on animals okay >> whom I see >> where I there was no pictures like uh today like internet facilities or anything we just see animals in the television or from our >> this is to the zoo as you zoo yeah and uh in the same uh backyard or in the patty fields.

[00:03:57]>> Yeah.

[00:03:58]>> From because I was brought up in a village.

[00:04:00]>> Yeah.

[00:04:01]>> So what I did was I I tried to uh uh like keep in my memory the colors, the forms and characters of animals as a child. I just wanted to see uh why each animal is different from the other.

[00:04:18]>> Right.

[00:04:18]>> So I copied them.

[00:04:20]>> Yeah.

[00:04:20]>> First in the walls of my house.

[00:04:22]>> Okay.

[00:04:23]>> Yeah. Then my father brought some uh drawing books to me and uh I named it as the book of animals.

[00:04:32]>> Do you still have it?

[00:04:34]>> Unfortunately, I don't have them. I wish I had them because that is how I began.

[00:04:41]Then I did some sketches and I painted them. Uh that is all done by memory. So that's the beginning where I practiced the photography photographic memory. So keeping something in my mind and painting that later.

[00:04:58]>> Right. And then you moved on to doing portraits. So what I was asking is that your magic realism works have both animals as well as portraits wedged together. Magic realism is the for example if you take this ex exhibition there are many genres like the portraits the landscapes and uh >> citycapes >> cityscapes. So I combined all these three into one and did this uh category of uh magic realism where I combined >> it into a it's like a mental process some kind of a psychological exercise to me >> right so I would like to ask a question to you Vikram here because you have gone to a studio in Colbo and seen his process and seen different genres that he works on. What is it about magic realism that you liked most? And what do you think his potential is there?

[00:05:51]>> See, I've met many artists in my life being an art gallery. I get maybe 20 or 30 or 50 artists who reach out to me daily for, you know, me to have their shows.

[00:06:01]What I saw in Shanaka was a complete artist. You know when we were younger my mentor my mother's mentor Bimla we used to sit with him and he used to tell us the process of how a painting should be made. A painting like we discussed earlier as well painting is not a complete word. It's called an oil painting.

[00:06:23]>> Right? So in today's day and age I in his age group I seldom see any person using oil paints because there are shortcuts uh to it like acrylic or you know other mediums that have come up. Oil is a very tedious process where a painting can take years. When I went to his studio I just found halffinish paintings that he had probably started about a year ago a year and a half ago and each one had a story to tell. So when I saw when I asked him I I had a little chat with him. I said Shanaga I said what are you doing here? He says you know I've painted this uh artwork. I'm writing I'm waiting for the right face to come in front of me so I can make a portrait of her and add to the painting.

[00:07:08]>> And I said I'm doing a show.

[00:07:10]>> Fabulous.

[00:07:11]>> I that's what I call an artist. Somebody who doesn't bother about the commercials. Someone who goes through the procedure. I mean his works have taken years to make.

[00:07:20]>> Yeah. And why I chose so many genres is because again like I said in old days we used to have an hierarchy of artists.

[00:07:29]They used to be the highest the ranked artists were the ones who did mythological then came the the ones who did portraits. Then came the ones who did cityscapes. Then came the ones who did landscapes and abstract was considered a basic which eventually everyone did.

[00:07:44]>> Right. Right.

[00:07:45]So what I tried to show here is the capability of an artist who's touched all these genres in one show and I hope people have enjoyed it.

[00:07:55]>> Right. So I have a question leading on to from this you have seen the works on magic realism as a research organization where do you place them in contemporary art history of India also because it's not a genre that is followed by many artists practicing today. I think Shanaka the artist kind of answered that uh just a couple of minutes ago. Um I would like to say that he is a Sri Lankan artist. Uh his language, his development uh is very Sri Lankan. uh a lot of the themes that he has touched whether it's landscape and I'm guessing they're probably what he sees outside or you know some of his symbolic works are very Sri Lankan theme and what artist himself said that he's somehow combined these themes together and then created a new genre called magic realism where you have portraits where you have animals where you have you know some landscapes and you know there's a combination of all of these things But that looks very different uh because of the combination.

[00:09:00]But if you break out the individual pieces, they're still very shinaka, very Sri Lankan, very close to the roots that he comes from. So it's a great experimentation. Uh uh that's how I look at it. I mean, >> you know, that's a very interesting point you make about an art, his art showing Sri Lankanness in contemporary times. You know uh contemporary art is supposed to be without a geography without a geographical indicator where it is coming from yet when artists from Asia go to the west go abroad western collectors western museum directors they look for some Indianness in Indian art if the artist is Indian some Sri Lankanness so do you think he's been able to balance that Sri Lankanness as well as the absence of Sri Lankanness to make it contemporary >> I think uh uh a work that particularly speaks off the balance is that cow herder work >> right it's >> uh where you have essentially western study of a male anatomy >> right >> and then a lot of symbol symbolism from whatever he has seen around him in Sri Lanka and and a stick uh and there's a whole story and a narrative around it >> but if you just take the male uh uh portion out of it it almost looks like a European work >> anatomical study >> an anatomical study and I actually spoke to the artist about it a few days ago and uh you know he's obviously had uh different mentors in Sri Lanka and I think one of them was Russian as well and >> he my mentor was uh he studied in Russia for nearly like 10 years and >> Mr. Chandra Gupta Chandra Gupta Professor Chandra Gupta >> he lived in Russia for 10 years >> and he basically uh in that particular work uh there is no white and there is no black from what I understand because that is again inspired from his mentor and what his mentor kind of saw happening in Russia. So that's a very international influence even the an anatomical study is very international.

[00:11:00]Having said that it's not that other works don't have white you just look at the landscape as soon as you walk in. I mean that's very minimal very you know it has lots of white etc. So again a very Sri Lankan roots but very international uh style. The balance is that is there >> right?

[00:11:15]>> Vikram what do you think of a geographical indicator for contemporary art? Do you think it should be there or as he just pointed out a balance is required?

[00:11:23]>> Uh Sharaka said something a little while ago. He said when he started as a child painting it was more for his records >> right? So art for me over the generations, over the centuries has been a way of recording our own culture, our own, you know, our own ethnic likes, dislikes, the way we live our lives.

[00:11:45]>> Exactly.

[00:11:46]>> Uh in our case, in most of South Asia's case, it was sadly changed by the colonization of the European when the European nations came in.

[00:11:56]>> Everything we did was considered tribal and prim primal and native.

[00:12:00]>> Yeah. uh it was removed. The progressives came in you know they started off even after independence they started off with something which was called progressive which was following the western practices. Gradually South Asia started started losing its own ethnicity where we were gradually like what I call the white-kinned complex where everyone would just look towards the west for inspiration >> and validation also >> and validation as well >> right >> um the very fact that I started my gallery and I am doing a show with South Asian artist and if you can see the works these are not the kind of works most contemporary artists do today this is what our >> initial the basics of where we started from like a bikara. I mean what he would paint would be his own stories. He would see things around him and he would paint it and gradually that thing I just saw it disappearing. So when I saw his works I said yes this is something which is cultural where he's following his traditions but still keeping it contemporary enough for the western people to like it.

[00:12:59]>> Exactly.

[00:12:59]>> So yes for me I feel that a bit of your geographic and cultural entity should be in the artworks. Yeah, >> because we have internet after 20 years, 50 years, 100 years.

[00:13:18]>> How do we equate ourselves with our history is the paintings we see in caves. They are the ones that have been the best preserved. So the best ways of preserving our whole culture today is art.

[00:13:28]>> So yes, I think it should be there. And you know taking on from the geography I think one of the bravest acts for Shanaka to do is to paint those green landscapes on the room upstairs.

[00:13:39]>> Do you know what I was having a chat with him? He was telling me about uh 5 km or 6 km from his house there used to be a dump.

[00:13:46]>> Mhm.

[00:13:47]>> He said that dump got reclaimed and it was cleaned up and nature did this to it.

[00:13:51]>> Exactly.

[00:13:51]>> So for me those are beautiful. They're not liies. Call it this is why I call it brave because the moment you have a green landscape a pond and some water lilies we call them lotuses lotuses in it anybody who has very little information about art will say oh it's a mune it is not a mune it is not an impressionist >> I just want to add something here >> uh for all the people there were two artists who were contemporaries and best friends Renoir and Monet >> Monet >> they often went they their families were friends they were friends they often often went to you know the city side or the village side or the riverside in France and they would paint the same thing together.

[00:14:33]>> I mean in a lot of paintings of Renoir Monet is there and vice versa. If you compare the two paintings, they have so much similarity and still a lot of disparity because the styles are different, but the if you're painting the same landscape, I mean, it can't be different. But the way they've interpreted interpreted it is so different.

[00:14:54]>> So the same thing I anyone who tells me it looks like a Monet, I'd say he's got his own style. This is a backyard in his thing. Now today, every horse on a painting is not an MF.

[00:15:04]>> Exactly.

[00:15:14]We are here.

[00:15:34]Yeah.