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Go Home is Within Me is foregrounded in rebellion. Resilience and solidarity fuel the imagination. They become totems to reassess dreams. The emotionally charged atmosphere of the Argalaya (in the aftermath of the 2022 economic collapse in Sri Lanka) catapulted a political awakening whose ripple effects moved through South Asia. Contained within its spontaneity was the zeal to overcome a bleak future muddled with uncertainty. Pradeep Thalawatta excavates this momentum, renewing submerged public, political, and personal aspirations through the body of work in the exhibition.
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The rebellion that characterised the protest trickles into the exhibition, subverting expectation while claiming space. I Still Locked II, 2025, a reminder of the peak of the economic recession, reinvents the gas cylinders into collection boxes for the gods. Borrowed from Jaffna’s street vernacular, the installation explores the relationship between commodities, faith and survival with satire. Recognising creativity amidst adversity, the installation represents the imagination of the working class, liberated from the criteria of the white cube.
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The images emblematic of a new chapter in national history, when juxtaposed with empty plastic packaging materials, some with the price tags intact, unfold a conversation on the material, social and emotional life of people. What We Choose to Keep, Throw Away and Remember. is reminiscent of a time when simpler joys that signified comfort and integral to everyday living were far more accessible.
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Pradeep Thalawatta
If I Was A Superman, 2024Engraved on Printed Archival Photo Paper
112 x 168 cm
44 1/8 x 66 1/8 in -
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Go Home is Within Me: Pradeep Thalawatta
Current viewing_room
