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 early 20th century. 

So there was no George Keyts  for example, and nothing from artists like Anoma Wijewardene  whose multi sensory installation Kintsugi is up at the European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Bembo, by the Rialto bridge, during the Venice Biennale. The exhibit is open to the public till the end of November.

The photographs, beautiful as they were, were the work of British and other non-Sri Lankan photographers, ignoring the photographic outputs of  Lionel Wendt, Dominic Sansoni, or even younger photographers like Abdul Halik Azeez or Natalie Soysa  both of whom are a sensation on instagram!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many other artists and variety of genres.  Who does it serve to keep Sri Lanka (and other global south countries like ours) framed as historic and exotic?

Just asking....




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