Dumith Kulasekara: Visual Arts Practice, Research & Writing.

I started writing on  H.A. Karunarathne's works many years ago with the title of "The Avant-garde Artist and A Materialist of Sri Lankan Art". For some reason, I couldn't complete the text. A few days ago, I visited him and his work at his studio to discuss the forthcoming staff exhibition of the department of painting. This was my third visit to his studio. The following is the extract from the conversation that I had with H.A. Karunarathe at his studio in March 2021. It should be noted that there is no particular order of the questions asked from HA. The conversation flowed on as one step leading to another.  H. A Karunarathne plays a prolific role in the landscape of Sri Lankan modern and contemporary art. He is the most senior artist living and working constantly in studio contexts today. The other two senior artists in his generation retired Professor Albert Dharamsiri and W.A. Ariyasena are also contributing to Sri Lankan Art through their visual languages. Howe...

  Albert Dharmasiri was the first professor in Painting at the Department of Painting. His unique scholarly contribution to the literature of Sri Lankan Art has been significant and unavoidable landmark of writing of Sri Lankan Art. In the recent book, Dharmasiri relooks at George Keyt’s position in the context of Sri Lankan and South Asian Art. Unique scholarly investigation on   Keytian   Language of Drawing and Painting with very rare collection of reproduction of his works, this book gives a comprehensive reading of George Keyt’s works and his contemporary context as well. A comprehensive review of the book is published on this blog soon. Dumith Kulasekara  January 30 2021

  Due to the prevailing situation of the Pandemic, this event has been postponed. An exhibition of recent works by the Fulltime Faculty, Visiting Faculty  and Invited Artists will be held in May 2021 at the Faculty of Visual Arts, and on Online as a virtual exhibition. This exhibition will feature  works in different languages of  visual arts, and address diversities of themes and subjects that associated with the artists' creative research practice in their personal and social contexts.

The 1950s was a period that marked significant changes that happened on both the super and infrastructures of Sri Lanka. Such changes were reflected in cultural lives and their productions made within that context. In particular, from a political, social, and cultural point of view, the year 1956 was significantly traced as a period that the mainstream ideological belief of the country was turned into another direction (maybe with a belief of a positive future). At that time the state of the country thought that the roots of Sri Lankan energetic forces had been hidden, therefore, such forces should be re-generated.  It formed a new political movement with empowering native five great forces.  In this text, I am not going to discuss such issues and areas, obviously, it is another research. The reason that I slightly mentioned such historical background is because the subject of this text; "the Red Youth" (pic: 1) was painted in the year 1956. In 2018 (I cannot remember the exa...

"Organs without Bodies" is a piece of art that I created in 2019 which is one of the series of works that I have been producing for years, yet have not been on view within the public. The audience may have thought that it is not the work by Dumith Kulasekara as it is not showing (according to the audience) the features of my works which the public has been familiar with for a certain period of time. One reason for this could be a gap (this is a very critical concept in the critical theory of art) between the works seen by the public before the “Organs without Bodies”. So, now there is (the ) thing confronted to the audience that is beyond the dimension of thinking which encounters the subject with a shock that can create a psychic trauma (Kulasekara 2015, 4)  At this point, I am not going to clear that idea here. Rather I will leave it for the time and the audience. But I prefer to put it in a provocative way or in Lacanian way “Large hole and opening”. There is a large hol...

On an invitation sent by the Fine Art Faculty of the SOJO University in Japan, I attended for one-month residency program on visual arts research from December 2018 to January 2019. The Faculty is located in Kumamoto city which is a very quiet and fantastic place for studying and living. The Faculty of the fine art of the SOJO University consists of departments of Western Painting, Japanese Style Painting, Graphic Designs, and Sculpture. I had opportunities to work in figure drawing sessions in the sculpture department with Professor Kayako Kusumato and Professor Katsuno who are the leading professors in the department of sculpture and professional sculptors in Japan. Observing these professional sculptors' studios located in the faculty building has taken me into places where all kinds of research activities on materials, forms, and conceptual strategies are taking place. The studios are full of studies of sculptures and objects in bronze, ceramics and terracotta, and mixed m...

In 2018 I visited Athens for the third time. This year, it was dedicated to presenting my current research titled the examination of monochrome practices in contemporary art at the 9th Conference on Visual and Performing Arts held in Athens, Greece. My research practice is  always connected with site visits to the cultural and historical places in the world. This research examined the dimension of the idea of the monochrome present in the works produced by contemporary artists.  My research shows the constant presence of monochrome in painting and sculpture since the ancient time of art history. The research further found how such a monochromatic tone (as color, form, and idea as well) has become a language of art, especially in contemporary art. This third-time tour to  Athens, the place where gave birth to so many cultural, political, and historical phenomenon, has always given me a new insight of deeply looking back at the history and contemporary of visual arts p...

This exhibition included the body of works that I created during four months of the residency program at the fine art department of the K’Arts in Seoul, South Korea. The exhibition was held at 175 Gallery (K’Arts) in Seoul, South Korea. This show includes three larger size paintings and four drawings in Japanese Ink and drawings in ink and pen. In producing the works and curating the exhibition, I conceptualized Skins as a screen that exists as a shield of cover which prevents us from directly encountered the body (interior which is brutal and bloody). The works show the dresses with the in-completed body. I titled these works as a body without organs.

The Korea National University of Arts is one of the leading art universities in Seoul, South Korea, which has very strong graduate and postgraduate programs in visual arts. I was invited by the Faculty of Fine Arts for a four-month visiting researcher program. In this four-month program (AMFEK), I carried out studio-based research on the theme of the body and produced a body of work that includes paintings and drawings. The studio-based research was exhibited as an exhibition that was curated by myself. The exhibition was titled Skins. The catalog includes the text with my curatorial notes and the reproduction of the works

This is my first encounter with the works by one of my favorite contemporary artists Cindy Sherman. These photographic works are colossal in their scale.  The subject matter of her works as investigating the identity of the body and self and its different connotations within different contexts are addressed fantastically. And It reminds me of the works by the great tradition of portrait paintings from the Renaissance to the so-called post-modern age. Cindy's work is a good example of visual culture which I have been discussing in my studio and lecture practice at the department.  As a form of visual language, she blends it with the language of painting that marks a sign of post-modernity in art practices.  Looking at the bodies, textures, and colors very closely (I would say it n Derridain's term; a  close reading of material worlds  ) these works generate the power of exhibiting the fishing of all these contemporary materials. It is represented in the way of t...