The line, at once literal and metaphorical, is a seam that binds and divides, a gesture of drawing and of cutting. It is an image of borders and boundaries, but also of connection, cultivation, and renewal. In the context of this exhibition, the title evokes not only the physical earth, soil, clay, dust but also the deeper strata of human experience that are embedded within it: the residues of conflict, the cycles of labour, the persistence of memory, and the slow but certain work of healing.
Pradeep Thalawatta’s multidisciplinary artworks navigate the unresolved complexities of post-conflict Sri Lanka with subtle intensity. Working across photography, drawing, performance, and installation, he blurs the lines between witnessing and forgetting, public history and private loss. His works trace the contours of a landscape marked by war, urban spaces scarred and reshaped by violence, where the remnants of conflict are not always visible, but acutely felt. Through his lens and mark-making, Thalawatta captures a disquieting stillness, a quietude charged with the echoes of what once was and what remains unsaid.
