Copying! Where can it lead?

Prasad Abu Bakr

Plagiarism: In any field people who are involved in it can recognise a style at a glance. In painting it may be Picasso or our own George Keyt. In fashion, it may be French born Pierre Cardin or Japanese designer Kenzo or in music it can be Sinatra from the past or Sade of recent times. All these people have created and carved out an enigmatic style of their own within those fields related to their creative work.

The same goes with dancing, acting, photography, writing etc; Long time occupation in these particular fields can help the person involved in it evolve an unmistakable style which will be recognised by viewers and observers.

With so many creative genius' crowning the globe with all their creative glory ,we still see many who shine in their shadow making a fast buck by merely copying the original work. Some of them are apprentices that have trained under masters and have remained within the same framework of style.

Most of them under-cut their masters in price and supply the clients the same design at a cheaper price.

Copying! here, has become an almost done thing reaching shameless levels at times. What we all marvel at as special and what we still enjoy as original works of art are still products from the late sixties. Today it is evident that many architects have drawn the inspiration from our past masters such as Geoffery Bawa or Minette De Silva.

Colour sense

The colour sense and drawings on the many creative pennants by Ena De Silva has been copied by almost all batik manufacturers since batiks came to remain a national trade in this country.

The same can be said of the inimitable drawing style of Sybil Wettasinghe who has illustrated scores of children's books and also used her stylised illustrations in her batiks. Her traditional motifs used specially on batik Kandyan saris became a commercial stepping stone to many batik entrepreneurs at the time.

Batik designs

The late Somabandhu Shilpadhipathi was an artist who designed many wall hangings for batiks. Many batik manufacturers bought his designs to be re-produced in batiks. But there were many others who copied Somabandhu's designs and made a living by selling them over the years.

In woven textiles a major contribution to this field has been made by one of Sri Lanka's foremost textile technologist and designer Chandramani Thenuwara whose designs have gone down well with many designers of the weaving industry. Her spectrum range and other contemporary combinations paved the way for many involved in textile weaving to copy her style, fitting them into dress fabrics and furnishings.

Her designing capabilities did not stop at nourishing the many weaving centers of the government sector alone, a large part of her creative ideas are seen being used by many who have survived in the industry and special mention has to be made of the handwoven saris, once made popular by many of the newscasters that appeared on television draped in those many shades of colour in form of weaves designed by Ms Thenuwara.

Early seventies

In the early seventies when Senaka Senanayake, Sri Lanka's foremost child prodigy created a name for himself bringing fame to our country, there were many young artists that followed in his footsteps.

Even today there are grown ups who still imitate the artist's famous style and present them at exhibitions. It will be fitting to state, however, that the most copied artist of our time is invariably the late George Keyt.

George Keyt reproductions are such a common site today that it sometimes makes one wonder the number of buyers that might be purchasing a fake without knowing what they are in for. It seems as if entrepreneurs are encouraging such artistes with an aim of flogging the reproductions at fancy prices in art markets.

In contemporary terms the most copied Sri Lankan artist is Jagath Weerasinghe. His work that appeared on the scene during the early nineties became a big hit among buyers, this triggered off a chain re-action to his style, which otherwise would have been seen as brash and without a sense of elegance.

Owing to its immediate success many artists began copying his style but the most number of followers came from his own camp. The reason being that during the mid nineties Weerasinghe worked as a lecturer at the Department of Aesthetic Studies, The University of Kelaniya and there were dozens to follow him and yet do follow in his style.

In today's context this is all leading us in an even more bizarre direction. Our society has probably graduated from copying individuals and today we are borrowing other cultural elements wholesale.

Architecture

So! It is not only in the fields of painting and architecture or interior decorating where copying exists. It is a widespread disease and many are unaware of the fact that they are in fact reflecting somebody else's ability to their own advantage or even their cultural backgrounds; however, it may appear to look foreign in our surroundings.

There are entire shops operating in Colombo today selling copies of other designers' work copied off lifestyle magazines from overseas. With the free trade setting in to Colombo the country instead of show casing our designs and products abroad, the design industry here was quick to grasp and influence itself by what was coming in.

Today almost everything that is available in our market are products influenced by cross cultures from all over the world.

The vast possibilities that were available to us in ways of not only flourishing in the export market but also of propagating our own stamp of identity within our own living styles have disappeared because we wanted to service the west with commodities that were useful to them and suitable to their style of living.

Victims of ideologies

We have now become victims of those ideologies brought in by foreign experts that frequented our shores during the earlier days that the free trade opened itself here.

Today most of the music that is aired over the many radio stations that have mushroomed reflect either Indian or Western flavours, the most popular being the Rap variety. Television is full of Indian soap operas and in recent times copies of such South Indian soaps produced here with Indian directors and their production crews.

Our paintings today are mostly post European and some of them are un-recognisably European because art dealers are trying to satisfy the needs of decorators looking for such work that can fit in with their borrowed design trends that play a major role in their schemes; Which are based mostly against the cold and frozen backdrop of the West.

Even our eating habits have changed from wholesome and healthy to quick and Chinese accompanied by carbonated mineral waters with artificial colouring. Many youngsters can be seen sipping these drinks at breakfast in their own homes.

Borrowed designs

Look at our brides. They are a concoction of the far east and the west. The ceremonies are all to western standards and a lot of monies are spent on maintaining appearances rather than making it a happy family affair that can bond the families of both the bride and the groom together.

At such functions one finds that most of the effects are either borrowed from western magazines or carried out on instructions given by those many half baked experts that appear on television preaching viewers on modern etiquette and western mannerisms.

If one wonders how all this stuff about copying can lead to this, then this is where individual copying habits in some instances can lead to.

Invading cultures

When it's allowed to breed, it can end up engulfing entire nations effecting its culture and identity. There is a marked difference in being influenced and being inspired. In the case of the latter, it can help us to sharpen our ideas by taking into notion the finer points in somebody else's creative work.

Today we have been bulldozed by individuals who have copied a lot of foreign living styles, art works and many other social standings that are generally based upon indigenous evolutionary systems, which we were once proud bearers of. This is all a sad chain of happenings not because there has not been any good evolving through this whole process but we have unconsciously sacrificed whatever good we had that could have been developed into something unique at the cost of borrowing many things that are constantly appearing to be out of place within our space of living.

It is the same theory with individuals that copy too, after all much painstaking work that has gone into reproducing another's identity to appear as if it is 'your own'. But the moment it is seen by others, that is exactly what it will seize to be in the first place 'your own'. It will be a lifetime, living in another's glory, unrecognised and with no applause.