The Jeweled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka
Went with a friend to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) yesterday, and was excited to find that one of the exhibits to be The Jeweled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka . My friend, not of Sri Lankan origin, had a connection to whoever it was that curated the exhibit, so we both had an interest in checking it out. Some great stuff on display, including a beautiful tapestry loaned from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, some beautiful masks, a carved ivory chest and an inflatable sleeping Buddha, in the style of the stone statue at the Gal Viharaya in Polonnaruwa - great idea! Coming out of the exhibit and seeing many of the other collections that LACMA had to offer, two things struck me about The Jeweled Isle. One was how so many of the exhibits were borrowed from collectors or museums in the global North; and secondly how the artefacts and artists featured were not contemporary. It was as if artistic endeavours in the Jeweled Isle had ceased by the earl