Sri Lankan artist shortlisted for Asia’s most prestigious art prize

Multimedia artist Koralegedara Pushpakumara has been shortlisted for Asia’s most prestigious art prize. The Sovereign Asian Art Prize is given by the Sovereign Art Foundation for contemporary artists from the Asia-Pacific region and the 30 finalists have been selected from more than 700 entries in 17 countries. 

If the name of this highly original and deeply committed artist sounds unfamiliar, it’s entirely due to the poorly developed and largely misinformed groups that constitute the ‘art- loving’ public of Sri Lanka, concentrated mostly in and around Colombo, coupled with media ignorance of the value of modern art. As a result, we do not have a discerning, informed art-buying public large enough to sustain artists of this caliber, while public ignorance of new developments in art from the developed world has created a space large enough to sustain a number of half-baked artists with overblown reputations. 

"Most of my works have constituted mixed and overlapped figurative and non-figurative forms since 1998"

In this context, the selection of Pushpakumara for this highly competitive shortlist will give a tremendous boost not just to this artist’s creative energy, but also to others like him struggling to create a space for new forms of artistic expression in Sri Lanka.
In an interview with the Sovereign Art Foundation, Pushpakumara outlined his artistic vision and talks about his entry titled “Illusively Beautiful But Extremely Horrific.”

With regard to how important is personal history to his work, the artist says: “According to me, any human existence cannot be detached from her or his own experience, memories or their personal history. They cannot ignore their own trajectory or way of living. Therefore, my entire works of art have been an expression of the stories that I had experienced and remembered as every other. I express these memories in a non-figurative manner, but not in such a way that is, so abstract as modernists have done. So, I think that my works are filled with meaningful signs or they constitute meaningful codes. I also think memories are very personal and important in this initial step. But, at some point, these personal memories become an acquired memory, which we can call a ‘collective memory’. This is very political and social. Thus, my personal experience is at the same time, social.”

"My works express the unpleasant human existence in modern Sri Lanka"

White marks dominate “Illusively Beautiful But Extremely Horrific”. As to what these white marks represent to him, the artist says: “I would like to introduce the repetitive abstract white patches in my art work as the main motifs. The background is very chaotic and unfinished, covered by white patches which are seemingly similar with each other. So, I would say that ideas like collectivity and equality imposed by civilization, represented by the white paint, are not very comfortable – these ideas hurt us rather than being helpful or therapeutic.

Koralegedara Pushpakumara

In response to the question as to what one can learn from Sri Lanka’s troubled history:  “My works express the unpleasant human existence in modern Sri Lanka, that has been affected by strategies of the corporate capitalist system and results of the unripe modernisation process. Meanwhile, I have been experiencing traumatic events which were powered by ethnic nationalism, religious nationalism and greedy political parties in the post-colonial Sri Lanka. I believe my experiences were also generated by the public school system formulated in the later 19th century.

"However, the new forms of works or new artistic idioms are very much similar to the earlier work that I started in 1998"

Most of my works have constituted mixed and overlapped figurative and non-figurative forms since 1998. However, around the time that the civil war ended, I have turned to a totally figurative language. In 2009, I exhibited works called ‘Goodwill Hardware’ as a suitable example for this style. However, the new manner or complete figurative art-making that I have initiated has not been continuing for a lengthy time period and was automatically connected with the previous style. In this new appearance, I have shown that cultural signs are more prevalent than the human form. However, the new forms of works or new artistic idioms are very much similar to the earlier work that I started in 1998.

Human trajectory is not calm. It will never be calm. So, it will never be entirely comfortable or innocent. Therefore, we can never make art so sophisticated and noble, so clean. Thus, we are not able to forget or escape such words like ugliness, rawness and incompleteness.”