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Pradeep Thalawatta (b. 1979, Ratnapura; lives and works in Athurugiriya) explores the intersections of material culture and everyday life. Using imagery drawn from popular and mass culture, such as packaging, found objects, and the vernacular aesthetics of the street, Thalawatta examines complexities of social relations, economic struggles, and urban realities in his practice..
His works has been exhibited at several solo and group shows in Sri Lanka and has also exhibited at the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2018), Zahoor-Ul-Ikhlaq Gallery, Lahore (2018), Times Museum, Hong Kong (2016), Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2016), Satrang Gallery, Islamabad (2015), Brunei Gallery, London (2014), 1 Shanthiroad Gallery, Bengaluru (2010), and National Art Gallery, Male (2009). He was among the 30 finalists selected for the Asian Art Prize, Christie's, Hong Kong (2014-15) and was an awardee of the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute for South Asian Arts scholarship for the years 2005-2006 and 2015-2016. His works belong in the permanent collection at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan and Millesgarden Museum, Sweden. |
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What inspired you to enter the arts?Art was part of my school curriculum, though I wouldn't say I stood out. At best, I was average. What shifted my understanding of what it meant to be an artist was an art event organised in my locality, where several figures who are now important names in Sri Lankan art were invited, including Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Jagath Weerasinghe. It was my first real encounter with what being an artist could look like. It led me to joining Vibhavi Academy of Arts where I studied before travelling to Pakistan for my BFA.
Left to Right:
Self Portrait, 2004,Mixed Media,122 x 213 cm
Body, 2004, Coloured Wire, Aluminium Dust, Magazine Paper, and Charcoal on Paper, 121 × 91 cm
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WHAT CONCERNS EMERGED WITHIN THE VERY UNIQUE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS OF JAFFNA AND HOW DID IT SHAPE YOUR CREATIVE PRACTICE ?
When I went to Jaffna, I was tired of the art scene in Colombo and wanted to push myself. I didn't go with any idealistic notion of creating change. While I was in Jaffna, I began to understand how the war had altered the landscape, the reason for the many constructions at the site and what it was covering over. The road expansions weren't only about infrastructure; they were quietly erasing what remained: war memorials, bullet marks on walls, traces of what had happened.
The site became a subject matter as a result. I became aware of the site. It affected me a lot and changed me as a person.
 Colombo to Jaffna, 2011, Mix Media, 180 cm X 60 cm
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How would you say your time in Pakistan shaped your practice?In Sri Lanka, my art education introduced me to historical figures and works that have captured human imagination. But it was in Lahore that I discovered the impact teaching could have on your own thinking and imagination. It deepened my interest in teaching and shaped the approach I later brought to the Ramanathan Academy, where I taught for a few years.
 Left to Right:
Pradeep Thalawatta with Participants of a Collaborative Project by Open Edit Mobile Library and Asian Art Archive, 2013
Line in the City, 2014, Video Performance in Lahore
Construction materials such as bitumen tar and sandpaper feature prominently in your work. Can you tell us how you started working with these materials? What is the conversation you hope to generate through the use of these?Tar entered my work through a research project focused on the A9 road in Jaffna and its significance. After the war ended in 2009, the road was reopened and large-scale expansion projects began. In their wake, shrines and other sites that had existed along the road were bulldozed, and covered over with tar and concrete. We had begun mapping these areas before the construction took hold, documenting what was there: Hindu shrines with their red and white stripes, small churches. It was a project we carried out with students. The tar, in that sense, wasn't just a material, it carried the memory of what it had buried.
 Left to Right : Militarization is Cultured II, 2024, Tar on Sandpaper, 70 x 84 cm
The Negative Space of Silence and the Tarred Text V, 2024,Tar and Collage on Sandpaper, 28 x 23 cm
Sandscape XIII, 2026, Mix-media on Sandpaper, 28 x 23 cm
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Your Tell us about your involvement with Kolam Jaffna.During my first stint as a lecturer in Jaffna, the university curriculum included a module on local crafts. When it was discontinued, a few students who had grown interested in the practice wanted to continue. After returning from my Master's in Lahore in 2016, Shanaathan invited me to be part of Kolam. The project involved research into craft traditions, exploring materials, techniques, and the people behind them. We looked at how dyeing was done traditionally, learned to produce natural colours from roots, barks, and mud, and used these to make functional objects. Through the project we learnt to bring art and craft together, and a few artists carried these learning forward into their work. Kolam became a space to exchange ideas, share knowledge and watch documentaries. It became a space where craft and art could come together, and where people could share knowledge, have discussions, and watch documentaries. For some of the practitioners involved, it was something they took forward in their own work.
(Un) Layering the Future Past of South Asia: Young Artists' Voices, SOAS Gallery, London, 2025
Can you tell us a little more about your current experiment?My work has shifted from an initial curiosity with material to something more cerebral. I have begun to notice it in the time I spend deliberating over a concept, and how I choose to realise it. In some ways I work with less deliberation now, because the idea tends to be clearer before I begin. Since moving back from Jaffna to Colombo, and starting a family, the circumstances of the past few years, have begun to shape my practice. The social political environment that followed the economic crisis shapes a large part of it, along with the spirit of the Argalaya that followed. It is also what shaped the works that were showcased in the exhibition Go Home is Within Me.
Left to Right: Extra Special, 2008,Bottle Caps, Transparent Sticker Print, Plastic Sheet, 87 x 158 cm If I Was A Superman, 2024, Engraved on Printed Archival Photo Paper,112 x 168 cm |
What are some of the ideas you find yourself returning to as a practitioner? Why?
Earlier work like Extra Special was shaped by the friendships I had, and continue to have, in my younger years. Now my practice is more domestic and intimate, shaped by my daughter Ayihini, my wife Hema Shirohi, and the everyday life we share. The social, political and economic conditions of our life did find their way into our lives; and I find this to be consistent across our lives, irrespective of the circumstance. The material world shapes our experiences of life, and a lot can be told about a person from the materials they choose to interact with. While in my earlier works I would feature myself alongside the works I created, I have come to also understand that the environment we live in offers a snapshot of who we are. In a sense, all my works are portraits of myself. I am absent from them, but a part of my life is reflected in each one. |
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