In නොපෙරලෙන පිටු / Noperalena Pitu (Pages that Never Turn), Kingsley Gunatillake’s longstanding practice of book art finds renewed resonance. Once repositories of knowledge, the pages of books are made into terrains of conflict, their burned and blistered surfaces form uneasy topographies – ridges, trenches and fault lines across which the bodies of toy soldiers are littered and miniature rifles are trained. The pages no longer turn in this unsettling theatre; where conflict is eerily gamified, recalling the naive childhood ritual of arranging soldiers across imagined front lines.

Gunatillake’s abstract paintings extend this meditation to a further register. The surface of the paper remains raw and unresolved as the artist exploits the inherent fluidity of acrylic to craft textured strokes of color with sweeping motions. These dynamic yet restrained brushstrokes suggest movements of memory itself—in flux.  In the series Memories on the Wall, these painterly gestures are partially obscured by a layer of delicate washi paper. The translucent surface interrupts the immediacy of the marks beneath, as though the forms are emerging through a haze. This obstruction generates a subtle sense of distance and unease, prompting viewers to peer more closely while never fully grasping what lies beneath. The resulting visual tension mirrors the act of recollecting a fragmented memory. These memories rarely present themselves with clarity but surface through layers of distortion, time, and emotional residue.