A4A

Saskia Fernando Gallery is delighted to present a group exhibition featuring the 2024 A4A (Artists for Artists) Production Fund grantees— Dumiduni Illangasinghe , Mayun Kaluthantri, and Malinda Jayasinghe. 

The A4A Production Fund was launched by Saskia Fernando Gallery in collaboration with Udayshanth and Angelika Fernando Foundation in October 2021. As Sri Lanka’s first publicly funded arts grant, the initiative aims to create a homegrown environment that encourages art practitioners to push the limits of their creative potential and continue researching and developing new bodies of work.

Malinda Jayasinghe’s ‘Saffron Borders’ explores the intersection of identity, power, and border creation in the context of contested lands in Sri Lanka. The series offers commentary on the ways in which the nationalist agenda has been weaponized for the redistribution of land, systematically displacing the minority communities. ‘Saffron Borders’ draws directly from the colour of the partitions on Sri Lanka’s national flag—a deep, earthy saffron that symbolises the country’s Buddhist heritage. This colour takes on a more ominous role in Jayasinghe's series, engulfing and encroaching upon the wooden surfaces of his work. The artist uses this visual metaphor to represent the insidious forces at play, as borders are drawn and redrawn in ways that serve the political agendas of a majority.

Within the bounds of the wooden surfaces, Jayasinghe interrogates the struggle to consolidate a sense of belonging as both identity and homeland become tenuous and contested. This tension is visually represented as the decayed and weathered wood is entangled and consumed in hyperrealistic ribbons and swathes of saffron fabric. The artist chooses to burn and blacken the surfaces of the found material, evoking the trauma and destruction that have scarred the northern and eastern region of Sri Lanka, particularly in the aftermath of the Civil War. Fusing organic materials with inorganic elements such as glass and cement, Jayasinghe evokes imagery that speaks to the complexities of existence within borderlands. ‘Saffron Borders’ addresses the tensions that arise when identity is shaped, contested, and often forcibly redefined within the shifting landscapes of power and politics.

In ‘Uniform’, Mayun Kaluthanthri portrays quintessentially Sri Lankan figures in quasi-uniforms, suspended between the urge to rest and the relentless pressure to work. The figures—ranging from a gold-adorned hardware shop owner to a mechanic with a lit cigarette and a salaryman slumped in a toilet cubicle—are seenin a moment of ambiguity, leaving usto wonder: Are they asleep, resting, or simply worn down by the weight of burnout?

The artist’s process begins with preliminary sketches that allow Kaluthanthri to recall and capture fleeting everyday encounters with individuals. The figures that emerge in these sketches are not representations of any single, defined person but rather a fusion of impressions and experiences, embodying the roles they play and the ‘uniforms’ they wear. The pose and gestures of these figures, caught between dimensions of rest and action, are almost recognizable yet remain elusive, as the familiar intertwines with the abstract.

‘Uniform’ delve into the conditions of existence within a society and culture that demands a constant outpour of labor, where near-constant exhaustion prevails. Located within this tension is uniformity, enforced through the costumes the figures don as they perform their assigned roles. A dynamic colour palette is coupled with playful distortions that warp the dimensions of the canvas. Each figure appears trapped in their own cycle of perpetual motion, caught in a loop where work and rest blur into one another.

Dumiduni Illangasinghe’s ‘Love Untethered’ draws viewers into the delicate interplay between the phenomena of the natural realm and the human psyche. The artist begins by gathering objects that bear the imprints of life’s experiences. These objects—oil paints, paper, fabrics, coffee, mehndi—are carefully integrated into mixed-media compositions, transforming into sculptural forms and paintings that embody an aura of positivity.

Illangasinghe finds a kindred spirit in the fleshy, bulbous spores of mushrooms, which translates into a vivid visual language, where ethereal imagination blends with keen observation, capturing the essence of the mushroom in abstract form.

The abstractions in Illangasinghe’s paintings take on a physical form in her sculptural work. Sculptural forms are presented as if they were scientific specimens, encased under glass domes, preserved study and stripped of their vitality. This echoes the human impulse to shield our memories against relentless turmoil. Yet, just as mushrooms become dormant when disconnected from their mycelial networks, our memories too become distorted when isolated from the context of our experiences. The artist presents a sensitive and thoughtful study of fungi spores as the audience is encouraged to examine the intricate layers and hidden folds, providing dimension to the hidden processes of the mushroom’s life cycle.

In ‘ Love Untethered’ delicate mediums are meticulously layered and structured, given a fleshy tactile quality that mirrors the dynamic nature of fungi and spores Illangasinghe studies. The installation responds to its environment and audience with quiet sensitivity as if an invisible transfer of matter and energy occurs as you weave through the space. Through her foray into abstraction and tactile engagement, Illangasinghe interrogates the cyclical exchanges of nature and the imperceptible links between life forms and the natural world.