For the past 22 years, activist and renowned contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara has been memorialising the horrific period of July 1983 through paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation. This year, undeterred by the Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted every aspect of life, he has launched a virtual exhibition of his newest collection entitled “Atmosphere At/Most/Fear,” in collaboration with the Saskia Fernando Gallery.
It is not an extensive collection – just nine painting and a sculpture but, as they say, every picture tells a story.
The memoralisation works began with beginning with his famous Barrelism series in 1997.
After Sri Lanka entered war mode in 1983, security barriers sprung up across the country. In the beginning, they consisted of little more than sand-filled metal barrels strung across the road for the security forces to stop vehicles and conduct searches. They became a symbol of the irreversible changes that the country and society were going through.
