Malinda Seneviratne

‘Crisis & Struggle’ is the title of an art exhibition that was recently held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery. Sujith Rathnayake, the artist, calls it a visual art attack. Nice line. It is presented by, so the poster claims, ‘Art Gallery of the Galle Face Protest Site.’

Sujith Rathnayake’s stature as an artist got considerably enhanced during the ‘Aragalaya.’ Put another way, his stature as a conscious objector to perceived tyrannies or rather tyrannies perceived was elevated during those months.

Now we do know that the Aragalaya spawned a lot of unsavoury characters or rather brought them to the fore. Among them were ‘artists’ and some of them were funded directly or indirectly by the US State Department, especially through NED (National Endowment for Democracy), the successor to the CIA in overseas operations designed to destabilise nations considered ‘unfriendly’ or bring them under Uncle Sam’s sway. It is unlikely that Sujith Rathnayake had membership in that particularly distasteful club of con-artists.  

The artistic worth of Sujith’s work will have to be evaluated by art critics. Political fellow travelers will no doubt celebrate a comrade, but perhaps the full significance of one particular exhibit might be lost on them — the installation piece where a prison door and a mirror compels ‘viewer’ to consider his/her incarceration(s), aptly captioned with a Vicent van Gogh quote, ‘conscience is a man’s compass.’

It is pertinent that the quote is an extract from a letter Vicent wrote to his brother Theo (in December 1882) who supported the artist financially and emotionally. The entire letter makes fascinating reading, but let’s limit this to the paragraph that contains the quote, as translated by Theo’s wife Johanna van Gogh-Bonger:

‘One must go on working silently, leaving the result to the future. If one prospect is closed, perhaps another will open itself – there must be some prospect, and a future too, even if we do not know its geography. Conscience is a man’s compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities when directing one’s course by it, one must still try to follow its direction.’

Sujith’s invitation is one for self-examination, a consideration of possible complicity. The image of the artist, self-incarcerated and self-framed by a reference to the conscience, is certainly powerful. It cries out, ‘I shall begin with myself.’  Maybe Sujith will, accordingly, express in art or in other form what he contended with in this journey.  He hasn’t yet, that much is clear from the rest of the exhibition.

It is a call nevertheless and since the entire exercise is Aragalaya-toned, so to speak, one cannot be faulted for wondering whether the comrades-at-arms were spurred to engage in the self-reflection prescribed.

The target of the ‘attack by art’ is the status quo, the state, the government then in power, the rulers of that time. The installations and the paintings state the artist’s discontent and indeed livid objection to all that. Perhaps in the calculation of ‘musts’ and ‘perhaps later’ Sujith decided not to question himself, his comrades, fellow-aragalists, relevant paarshava of the Aragalaya with regard to the choice of slogans, the tone of protests, arson, robbery, murder and other despicable acts which, ironically were important issues ranted and raved about by the agitators. Perhaps it was not the time to question, for example, the petikiriya of fellow-aragalists or unwrap the contradictions that were so apparent at Galle Face or, as they called it, GGG (Gotagogama).

Sujith Rathnayake is an artist. He is an activist. He stands up for what he believes. It is not unfair to ask him to subject himself to the tests he has prescribed for others. Time has passed.  A lot of time. Things have happened. One could ask, ‘what kind of reflection has the artist done in the time that has passed?’

Sujith will, I am sure, respond as he will. When he feels it is appropriate. For now, what’s most important, for me at least, is the invitation he has so eloquently ‘worded’ with mirror and frame, incarceration forced, willing submission submitted to imprisonment of one kind or another.

No struggle is perfect. No struggle is smooth. All struggles are marked by setbacks, confusion, betrayal etc. Sometimes, the worst betrayals are those perpetrated on account of ignorance and arrogance or, indeed, those which resolutely refuse self-criticism.

Sujith Rathnayake has put many things in perspective. Sujith Rathnayake has turned a searchlight inwards. The light has also fallen on the agitators and the agitation, whether or not this was intended. It is an important and necessary intervention by an accomplished artist and a man for whom conscience is a compass for it could result in the realization that conscience too can be subjected to incarceration. Self-incarceration. 

[‘The Morning Inspection’ is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]