Outline: Arjuna Gunarathne
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Arjuna Gunarathne's Outline offers a glimpse into the artist’s visceral interiority as he navigates the complexities and nuances of existing in an unfamiliar space. The exhibition presents the fantastical imagination through which the artist essays the loneliness and alienation of the migrant experience while finding mirth in the quiet existence he has carved out for himself and his family. Filtered through the prism of Gunarathne’s emotional wavelengths, this latest series explores an uninhibited childlike imagination through an engagement with pigment pen, watercolour and crayon, reinterpreted from the many schools of visual art he is trained in.
Gunarathne oscillates between styles, techniques and conventions of Mughal miniature traditions, mural painting and British academic practice, blending the East and the West seamlessly as he synthesises a visual vocabulary that is uniquely his. His engagement with material explodes onto paper and canvas, like an avalanche of colours and a brilliant use of composition. In a style that is quintessentially inspired by the fauvists, they open up the artist's emotional landscape to the viewer.
Gunarathne leans into visual distortions to heighten the sense of fear and uncertainty in a style similar to the German expressionists and blends it with an explosive use of colours. Desolate and gloomy townscapes are reimagined as two-dimensional and laid-out like patterned textiles, as the unfamiliar opens its doors and invites the tacit possibility of warmth. His work echoes the feelings of anticipation that accompany many immigrants who leave their familiar lives behind to start anew. The pastel shades and vibrancy achieved by his pigment pen, convey a poetic hopefulness and joie de vivre.
The content solitude that emerges in the company of loved ones comes through in Gunarathne’s family portraits. His loved ones float in space untethered to the reality outside, like figures in the tradition of East Asian art. Even in their preoccupations, they seek comfort in each other's presence and are held close to each other by an invisible twine. Guided by his training in miniature traditions at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, the artist paints them with meticulous attention to detail. This very private world becomes visible to us through a patchwork of translucent, coloured candy wrappers also reminiscent of the warmth and comfort of patterned quilts.
The universe the artist creates for himself is filled with euphoria and magic, away from the routine and monotony of existence. Within the boundaries of this private world that the artist retreats into is a garden of abundance filled with evergreens that are larger than life. It is a scintillating and vivid sanctuary filled with arching boughs and canopied shade that encircles him and his occasional companions. He blends into them, becoming a part of his surreal imagination, and at other times he comes across as a figure in sharp contrast to the world around him.
Outline while being a deeply personal narrative also communicates a communal experience drawing from his observation of the many migrants and refugees around him. In a new place and culture, life becomes both expansive and constrained. Individuals who leave behind the comfort of their home countries are greeted with uncertainty and amidst this, it is the warmth of loved ones that offers them respite. Gunarathne, through his practice, finds subtle but magical poetry in the experience.
