නොපෙරලෙන පිටු / Noperalena Pitu (Pages that Never Turn): Kingsley Gunatillake

In නොපෙරලෙන පිටු / Noperalena Pitu (Pages that Never Turn), Kingsley Gunatillake reconceives the book as a wounded form. Scorched, cut, and interrupted, its surfaces bear the sediment of histories that resist erasure. The altered pages suggest not a single event, but the universal fragility of memory itself, how knowledge, once marked or damaged, cannot simply be restored to innocence. Refusing closure, these suspended leaves deny the gesture of turning; they hold the viewer in a space of pause, where remembrance becomes an ethical act.

Kingsley Gunatillake completed his BFA at the University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya (1979), and a Diploma in Environmental Education from the University of Strathclyde, UK (1994). He is currently a visiting lecturer in the Faculty of Visual Arts at the University of Visual and Performing Arts in Colombo. Gunatillake has also received two NOMA Awards from Japan (1993 and 2003), as well as the award for illustration at the Biennale Bratislava, Slovakia (1997). In 2001, he was honoured with the Bunka Award for Visual Arts for his exceptional work at the Temple of the Tooth World Heritage site in Sri Lanka.

Gunatillake’s practice has been presented internationally at major platforms including Frieze Seoul, KALĀ, Colombo, India Art Fair, New Delhi, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Blueprint.12 Gallery, New Delhi, University College Dublin, and Siacca Gallery, Tokyo. His works are held in significant public and private collections, among them the Presidential Collection of Contemporary Art, Colombo, and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi.