DK: When I look at your works, even here at the studio, it does not show that you are restricted to one medium or language. Do you make painting…drawing…or sculpture….or objects?
HA: I don’t define my works as drawing, painting, or sculpture. Rather I create "Art”. I am interested in different mediums.
DK: What is the relationship of materials to you and your works because your body of work is always associated with different materials that go beyond the paints and brush, and techniques?
HA: Sometimes, I work with color when the material cannot do what I need, and I find materials when the color cannot do that. So, my approach to materials is an implication of the need that I had at the moment I was making art. I am searching for materials to express my chance at life. Also, it is related to the idea of taste which is different from one to another. This takes time that is supported by a sophisticated mind. The mind is the key path to understand and experience taste.
(DK: at this point, Karunatahne made a statement of Cezanne and his language of painting. HA mentioned that Cezanne brought the intellectual approaches to the language of painting.)
DK: Do you think that “Art” can be taught?
HA: No, it is hard to teach someone about "art", but it is possible to show or direct towards the art. It is an individual effort to understand it.
DK: Do you believe in the principles of art?
HA: Yes, you have to follow the principles before you’re going to break it or push the limit further. The principles are essentials. For example, Abstract art which is the spirit of art is based on the principles of realistic form. Quick responses to the chance of action are one of the key elements in abstract art.
"To be simple is great but that process is not that simple".
DK: The time you spent on your works? Do you finish the works on the spot or you would stay a longer period on your works?
HA: I am interested in the art on the spot. Direct response to the mood's presence within me is important. Like the idea coming out of Japanese the calligraphy or Haiku. It is extremely simple, but it is deeper and wider with meanings as a statement.
DK: I was wondering if you could tell me when did you find your interest in (readymade) materials…or objects?
HA: Sensitivity is a requirement for creating, experiencing, understanding, and appreciating art. My interest in material always comes up with the idea of taste and beauty, and then truth. The truth is the beauty; touching the heart through the materials is so mean to me. I am not working for the eyes. The artist is not pouring on your eyes. You have to think in terms of art (as a whole language) not in terms of the meaning.
Appreciation of art is so harder than anything else. People get things according to their previous experiences and knowledge that they collected and carried with them. (DK: He said "Thama Thama Nanapamanin..")
The work of art has the power to invite people, again and again, to be looked at the work. You will find something new every day if you go in front of the same work of art. Good work: painting (?) cannot be forgettable in human experience. It stops you at the work. It seduces you. So, the canvas I would call surface is there to be played on or collected on your experience. The painting means not make a picture on its surface, but bringing the spirit of your thought. Then I do not see any difference between color or materials (DK. He mentioned this idea before also). Bring the thing that was not present before, or make the absence presence in the works. Such as a “Haiku”.
So with all these sensitivities sometimes I cut the canvas (surface), I sew the canvas (surface) to trace my energy on it. Undefined energy. Chance is a very important element for artists. I prefer playing with that.
The human act can make things meaningful. Surface for the artist is a spiritual space (landscape) on which actions are made, dynamic traces happen. Boxing ring is meaningless without boxers playing within it. It is the same as the artist. The artist makes things meaningful with his intervention onto it. That is what Jackson Pollock did. The people didn’t understand him at the beginning, even today sometimes. Abstract art makes crazy people, heroes, and saints as well. Do you remember, the work titled No 3 by Mark Rothko at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 5th avenue in New York?
DK: Hmm...Yes, I was driven into another world. And at the MOMA also.
DK: How do you
start the works? Do you have a preoccupied idea, theme, or subject matter when you
start working on new surfaces (or canvas)?
HA: No, I am not interested in subject matter or theme. It is a frame and a limitation for both the artists and the viewer. So, I work for my pleasure and my desires, not for the other. In this sense, I am not afraid to directly engage with the ground I am working on. I have energy like “weerya” (as the Lord Buddha states) that demolish all laziness in life. I keep doing.
The Budda said first “Mama Suwapath Wewa..” (this is where HA philosophy lays on). Therefore, I work for searching ways to express myself through my works or searching ways to address my desires or pleasure. For that, there is no limitation and no fear at all. I take risks and chances in my work to develop the work.
Working on subject matters or themes and giving big titles (Like Abhidharma) is not the way to make the art. It gives directions and makes the work limited which I do not like to do in my work, I just make work of art. The people would find their own direction through it. I am not giving directions to them. So, it is free for them.
For instance; If you have experienced the sense of the fragrance of the Lotus, you would identify the flower from its delicate fragrance, it is not necessary to represent the flower itself. Nature is the greatest teacher of art.
The end of the conversation.
My special thanks should go to HA Karunarathne for his generosity to accept my request and invite me to his studio to make this conversation possible with more liveliness, and also for accepting my invitation for the forthcoming Department Show. His work will be shown in the forthcoming department show.
The photographing of his work was not made by me in this visit, except the photograph of the artist was taken at his studio ((posted on this page).
In my next essay on HA's works, I will discuss the Language of Materiality in Contemporary Art Practice in Sri Lanka.
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