Book Launch of ‘The A to Z of Conflict’ commissioned and published by Raking Leaves in 2019 with Abdul Halik Azeez, Muhanned Cader, Arjuna Gunarathne, Nina Mangalanayagam, Nillanthan, Anomaa Rajakaruna, T.Shanaathanan, Anushiya Sundaralingam, Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Kamala Vasuki.
‘The A to Z of Conflict’ is a tri-lingual artists’ book by ten Sri Lankan contemporary artists. It imagines what a commonplace children’s ABC book would look like if all the entries were chosen in relation to words about conflict, and words borne out of conflict. The project uses English, Sinhala, and Tamil, the three languages spoken in Sri Lanka, a country torn apart by a brutal civil war. From afar the compendium of entries testifies to the ways language defines us linguistically, socially and politically. Up close it reveals how the complex workings of language have the potential to conjoin and divide us. Each copy of “The A to Z Conflict” is bound in one of six combinations, reflecting how three languages can be positioned without giving one language greater status over the other. Drawing on the history of language conflict in Sri Lanka, this tri-lingual artists’ book serves as a collective means to think about how language rights, exclusion, status, and planning might serve us better in the future than they have in the past.
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