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- Sculpture turned painter
- Symphony in black and white
- At last ... a quantum leap
- 'Sri Lak Flora'
- Health beauty and gift fair
- Business home and safety exhibition
Currently on display at Paradise Road Galleries is the work of young Sri Lankan artist Sujith Rathnayake,
Sujith, a final term student at the University of Kelaniya,who undertook sculpture as his major confidently realized the potential versatility and freedom of the brush and turned to painting. He discovered his talent in painting five years ago and his experience in sculpture gave his painting skills much desired three dimensional depth.
He is probably one of the most talented and gifted artists who has emerged in the Sri Lankan art scene. His work is not only sought by local but foreign art lovers as well.
Essentially black and white canvases his work is best described as explosive and lively where his passion lies in his artistic freedom with his canvas. Paradise Road Galleries will be exhibiting his work till the 14th June at 2, Alfred House Gardens Road 10 AM to Midnight daily.
by Aneesha Attygalle
Text and Pics by Kirthi Sri Karunaratne
Art in Sri Lanka is taking strides and making people, apart from lovers of art, sit up and take notice of what is going on. The newest recruit towards this contribution is young and charismatic Sujith Rathnayake. Regular buffs of art gathered at the Paradise Road Gallerie the prestigious venue for exhibitions at the invitation of Udayashanth Fernando, who was turned into an ardent supporter of young artists, specially working in the modern idiom.Sujith’s work which has been hailed by the critics was all done in stark black and white with hardly a touch of colour, and I believe will not be every body’s cup of tea. His style is unique and his paintings are a brooding insights into his interpretation of life, which sometimes turns explosive and passionate.
Occasions like this is hardly the place for a search of the fashionable elite. Nevertheless the appropriately well dressed and well groomed woman creates an illusion all their own.
A cotton saree in a tobacco brown bordered in bands of mustered and black with the pallu providing a lift to the sombre colours in orange, Sunethra Bandaranaike teamed with an sleeveless black blouse. The black border had a fine gold thread woven stripe along its edge.
The mischievous looking artist himself went along with his black and white theme and wore a smart black shirt with black pants and black belt to make his slight frame look even more diminutive.
Romanie de Silva too favoured a cotton saree in a deep green shot with black, bordered in red and gold, she wore with black blouse and black accessories.
It was good to see many young people supporting their friend Sujith, who is a final year student at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya, majoring in sculpture. He is soon bound for Japan to widen his horizons and for an exhibition of his work, the whole project at the moment in the final stages of planning.
A night of a thousand stars
After a lull in the social world it was like a burst of fireworks when the fashion conscious women of Lanka gathered at the Taj Samudra Ballroom on the invitation from Lalitha Rajapakse to her annual party, which brings her friends together to celebrate her birthday.
Mr. Sam Wijesinghe, an old friend of the family toasted Lalitha and her daughter and son, Nirupama and Shyamlal. Anecdotes from the past included stories of Lalitha’s father’s goodwill and his efforts to keep the people of this country together, in effortless harmony and peace.
Lalitha in a brief speech of thanks, said how pleased she was to have all her old friends who have been with her through the years, and of course a few new ones.
Music for dancing from a three piece combo kept the floor packed with everybody on their toes, before and after an excellent dinner and the other trappings, including the birthday cake, she cut flanked by her children.
It was besides a night of a thousand stars. There was glamour and glitz everywhere with some of the most elegant and beautiful clothes I have seen in a long while worn by the guests. The hostess set the tone in an unusual saree in a plum tone, with the hemliness fusing into a wide fuschia border. On the fuschia was a floral print in shades of ecru, and blue outlined in gold. She wore a necklace of rubies set on gold, and her shoes and handbag was in gold. A dainty spray of flowers in the fuschia and ecru adorned her coiffure, to create the well groomed woman of today.
Exceptionally beautiful was the saree that Yvonne Dias wore. The saree upto the pleats, and the blouse which was high necked and had cutaway armholes, was in a gleaming satin, while the fall was of a delicate and exquisite lace in deep bronze and brown spun with silver. Her perfect ornament of a necklace of smoky topaz was set on silver.
Shades of aquamarine, turquoise and ink blue with white made the printed chiffon saree that Nalini Senanayake wore. The print was in a design of large daisies, some of which were outlined and dazzled in sparkling blue. Her blouse was in one of the lighter shades of blue, and she wore a single strand necklace of pearls.
A saree of silver mesh, closely woven embroidered at the borders in shades of grey silk thread Shobana Nagendra wore with pearls and silver accessories.
The saree Goolbai Gunasekera wore too was in the similar mesh, these net sarees are so fashionable in the fashion capital of India Mumbai. Her saree had a border in wine and was worked in gold on the net which was in a pale tone of gold. The embroidered fabric in sapphire blue and gold that made the fall from the shoulder downwards, and the blouse had occasional cutouts and was quite stunning in its impact. The rest of the saree was in the blue and made one of the best outfits Chula Ariyaratne has worn. Subdued but reeking of elegance was the sand toned saree Malkanthi Wickremanayake wore. The saree had blocks of design in orange and turquoise.
The shading on the saree Mallika de Mel wore was so pleasing to the eye. It shaded from an olive green to paler tones, and was embroidered along the border in gold zardesi.
Priyani Ratnagopal had her black organza patterned in a design of checks in a subtle shade of green with a simple border in the same colour.
A flared black skirt cut in panels patterned in a white print, in silk from Pakistan, had the shawl too in the patterned silk, and the kameez in chiffon in the same design on Pathma Maharaja’s outfit.
Sita Malalgoda teamed her printed silver and black top with a black skirt, and she wore long black bead eardrops. Mersumi Andriesz had a long black gossamer top over a silm skirt in black for understated elegance.
Exceptionally striking was the shaded blue Kandyan saree Swarna Ameratunge wore. The blue chiffon saree had metalic blue bugle bead embroidery in a scrolled pattern of leaves on the ‘ihe’. The below the elbow length sleeves too was embroidered on net. She wore a chunky necklace of blue beads from India.
There were many more styles that made more than an impression, but space will not permit the details of all them.
Walk into any office, and just take a look around you. The sheer number of men at the top endorses what society preaches since early childhood: that men are intellectually superior to women and merit all the positions they occupy.
But a second, more observant, look and realisation dawns. On the one hand, there are men who assert their numerical superiority. On the other hand, however, is the confident modern woman who not only holds her own against her socially dominant counterpart but frequently surpasses him with the strength of her performance.
This is the urban Sri Lankan woman of the millennium, who has carved a niche for herself with her aggressive and purposeful professionalism. In the corporate sector, they are occupying visibly significant positions. In the media, many of them are performing at peak. The same goes for other professions like bureaucracy, fashion designing, academics, sports, medicine. Just name any occupation and the name of a performing woman will immediately come to mind.
"Whenever women have the chance to work hard and prove themselves, like in education for instance, they tend to do better than men. This is because in a male-dominated society, they have to prove themselves to a greater extent", says a publisher of a magazine. He refers to the performance of women in schools in recent years and quite rightly so. After all, just how many times have we seen newspaper headlines telling us that girls have outshone boys — as usual — in the GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations.
In Sri Lankan society till recently the ordinary woman with a conservative upbringing was forced to retreat into a shell not much after she had completed her basic education. The girl’s life as a woman meant a predictable journey, that is marriage first and bringing up children thereafter. Career ambitions had to be sacrificed at the altar of domesticity. The woman, barring the stray exception, was offered no other option by society.
A woman psychologist agrees with the publisher that in a male-dominated chauvinistic society women have to work doubly harder to prove themselves. But what about the fact that their performance are challenging men like never before?
"After the removal of social taboos, I think this had to be the natural outcome." The presence of women at the top is a consequence of centuries of suppressed aspirations, feels the psychologist.
And the fact that they are blossoming can be also ascribed to the men’s attitudes for it is they who take a lot of things for granted.
The success of girls in schools — especially their examination results — has also raised a lot of questions about the comparative intelligence of the two sexes. However, as the psychologist emphasises, it would be logical to view the situation from the point of view of the amount of effort put in by the average woman. Women have stronger determination in general, says she, and this leads to systematic effort at the workplaces. Many men, on the other hand, are the victims of their complacence. And when they make no special efforts which is so essential in modern times, women outscore them.
The average man’s lack of application and his female counterpart’s desire to prove herself after overcoming social odds are the two reasons why many of the latter are getting past the former.
Observes Anil Fernando of a leading firm. "In some ways, I feel that the women are better than men. They are more sincere, meticulous and sensitive."
In departments like that of human resource development — which is so crucial in modern times — one has to listen to the voice of the customer.
This is just one of the areas where women prove to be far more efficient than men, in general.
Some time back, some companies were prejudiced against woman. But they are revising their perspectives and also becoming more responsive to the needs of women.
Women are being given special facilities — like conveyances wherever necessary — because their potential is becoming increasingly visible. "The potential that was latent is becoming more and more visible of late," Anil copines. That is largely because of contemporary social changes.
"Men and husbands are becoming more accommodating and it is not rare that a woman returns to her workplace not much after she has given birth to a child", he further suggests.
Moreover, with the development of support structures like creches, a woman after giving birth is able to resume her work far more easily unlike earlier when her presence next to her newly born child was imperative.
The situation has changed without question, but some observers find the overall state of women far from happy.
A social scientist from Peradeniya campus says: "Sri Lankan men are a lowly species and instances of marriage breaking down due to a woman’s success are very common.
"Talking about the success of women in exams", he says. Any society that talks about success in terms of exams needs to have its head examined."
He emphasises on the need for more women in various professions for a simple reason. If one takes a look at the number of people who top the university exams, and keeps track of a small sample of successful students thereafter, girls usually ahead towards unenterprising lives like earlier. If that is undeniable, so is a second fact: - that of many women breaking away from conservative moulds to challenge men in professional lives. True, it is largely a middle class phenomenon and is confined to the larger cities of the country in general.
But as Marx said once, no revolution can overleap the natural phases of evolution. So while the rural woman finds the task of assertion rather tough even now, the urban woman does that quite frequently, and on a turf few thought they could.
Women no longer dictate terms in the kitchen. They do it in the office.
The annual exhibition and sale of exotic plants "Sri Lak Flora" will be held at the Viharamahadevi Park on 9,10 and 11 June.
Imported rare plants, gardening needs manure, and other plastic and coir products will be on sale in 80 stalls. Special lectures will also be conducted to the benefit of the plant lovers. The Exhibition is open to the public from 9.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.
The event is organised for the fourteenth year by Victor Weerasinghe. The proceeds of the exhibition will go to a charitable cause.
Health, Beauty and Gift Fair 2000 incorporating the bridal show will be held at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre for the fourth successive year, from 27-30 July 2000.
This event being the only one of its kind will bring together leaders in the segment of Hairdressers, beauty therapists, bridal designers, cosmetics suppliers and related products, including health and nutrition assembled under one roof, along with a galaxy of reputed caterers, hoteliers, florists, jewellers, dress makers, photographers, fashion designers etc., and cultivate relationships to meet one’s cherished dreams and desires.
Harcourts Pvt Ltd., are the co-sponsors of this event, which is supported by Ministries of Internal and International Commerce and Food and Industrial Development, Board of Investment Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, and Singapore Trade Development Bureau.
Business home and safety exhibition
Business, Home and Safety will be held at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre for the second year in succession from 27th July 2000 to 30th July 2000.
It will be an unique event, bringing together leaders in the field of business covering building materials, hardware and sanitaryware items. Electrical appliances and fittings, communication systems, decorative items, furniture and furnishing materials, fire and alarm systems, etc. to showcase their range of items.
Naveen Ceramics market leaders in top quality sanitaryware, floor tiles, sanitary fittings are co sponsors of the event.
Business Home and Safety is supported by Ministries of Internal and International Commerce and Food, Industial Development, Sri Lanka Design Centre, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and Singapore Trade Development Board.
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