Curators’ Note

Possibilities emerge when a needle punctures through a surface, grazes, or pricks it. Lines dream up alternate realities—they loop in to slow down time, leaving nuances of meaning between folds of fabric and textiles that are stretched taut. Here time becomes a narrator guided by loops and lines, the in-and-out movement of threads, or in the act of piecing together assemblages. When layers of text, textiles, images or paint overlap, meaning is sometimes made and sometimes lost in the shadow play of what is visible, and what is not. Conversations begin in these interstices.

Borrowing its title from the 1997 painting by artist Agnes Martin, With My Back to the World asks the viewer to observe, feel and respond to the subtleties in art-making without seeking a cause or reason. It is an invitation to actively engage with process and the tactile conversations that emerge across different disciplines. While two artists might be experimenting with the same idea or technique, their journeys often take them in distinct directions. However, what we begin to discover is also a meshwork of interconnectedness—of both resonances and paradoxes.

Through the work of 12 contemporary female artists from Sri Lanka, the exhibition reflects on the creative process, both mental and physical, through which artists transform a material, sometimes altering its original state to create new possibilities. Here the act of making takes precedence over the finished product—every action or gesture is oriented towards a purpose and in creating the overall meaning of the work. The syntaxes generated by the interactions of material, medium and process, like grammar and words that give speech its structure, are ultimately what drive ideas forward.

Inspired by the geometric elements and grids of Islamic architecture, Sabeen Omar uses embroidery and beading to transform objects from her childhood such as handkerchiefs and cardboard boxes, exploring the ephemerality of memories and the places we inhabit. Hema Shironi manipulates the mutable qualities of textiles in her work by allowing them to be folded, hung, stored away and then reassembled to contemplate the impermanence of home. She experiments with paper and stitching—reworking her materials to the point of disintegration to meditate on concepts of migration, displacement, and instability.

Fabienne Francotte’s hand is evident in her clay sculptures, drawings, and paintings of lips, which she impetuously stitches and reworks to reflect on sisterhood, loss, and trauma. Anomaa Rajakaruna approaches documentary photography with an acute sensitivity that leaves us deeply aware of the issues of conflict, displacement, and sexual harassment. Saskia Pintelon’s patchwork of collages, found photographs, appropriated artworks, and cardboard contemplate a society and its citizens that are constantly being ‘remade’ by political, social, or technological shifts in their environment.

Anoma Wijewardene tears and cuts up her paintings and reconstructs them into vivid and layered works to communicate ideas of inclusivity, sustainability, and harmony. Shaanea Mendis’ contemplative pen and ink drawings result from her keen observation of textural patterns and mark-making in nature. Hansika Herath engages with the laborious process of woodcut printing to conflate representations of the female form with nature to meditate on humanity and the environment. There is repetition in the manner in which she slowly chisels out the wood, and in the rolling and rubbing movements with which she transfers ink onto paper.

Embroidery, thick-set colours, and pieces of cardboard become the tools of Chathurika Jayani’s play. She dreams up fantastical urban landscapes of the future while inquiring into issues of industrialization and rapidly rising cities. Inspired by perspective in urban architectural spaces, Sumi Perera uses hybrid printmaking techniques to explore the interplay of geometric forms, shapes, and lines.

Ashini Nanayakkara uses a combination of analog and digital photographic techniques to construct geometric compositions of urban architecture that disorient traditional perceptions of space, place, and scale. The original process of painting is lost as Anoli Perera digitally superimposes century-old cosmological maps with present-day watercolours as she reflects on ideas of ‘pilgrimage’, and the sacred routes and landscapes people construct.

Whether it be embroidery, beadwork, woodblock printing, painting, sculpture, assemblage, or photography, there is much that transpires within the silent interstices of subtle gestures. The exhibition primarily focuses on the artists’ exploration of material and process before addressing their thematic concerns or the critical discourses they give rise to. This engagement with the work aims to demonstrate the versatility of each art practitioner and the myriad ways in which they are contributing to and inspiring the development of art practices in the region.

With My Back to the World asserts that women’s experiences aren’t monolithic, instead it is a celebration of the artistic expressions that define these artists and their work. Their vision becomes apparent in how they transform material to speak a language they imagine. Their thoughts are empowered by an acute creative process that is aware of the channels it would open. This is an attempt to grasp what remains unsaid in the liminal spaces where materials are moulded, arranged, reshaped, and deconstructed. It is in these pauses, creases, and spaces in-between that our gaze is drawn into an object’s materiality, allowing us to ruminate on the intangible experiences of life.

Mariyam Begum & Ashini Nanayakkara