Keyt and Khemadasa: Two producers of radical artistic creations
Eric Illayapparachchi
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AGNI: Superb creative effort
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CREATIVE ART: George Keyt and Premasiri Khemadasa, in at least one
aspect, engaged in similar artistic projects in the field of fine arts.
Both artists endeavoured to define the creative scope of their
respective genres - modern painting for Keyt and modern music for
Khemadasa.
Both of them were fundamentally in conflict with hegemonic arguments
advanced by the nationalistic fronts of respective fields, in regard to
the so-called national idiom acceptable as a truly national art within
the nationalistic discourse in terms of motif, style, content, form etc.
Derridian philosophy and literary theory teach us that art functions
with "Presence" as well as "Absence". What the national discourse always
needs is a presence and it needs visible national features. However, art
works and becomes lively only with a functional necessity of absence
along with presence.
Modern French philosopher Jacques Derrida says, "To be what it is,
all writing must, therefore be capable of functioning in the radical
absence of every empirically determined receiver in general. And this
absence is not a continued modification of presence, it is a rupture in
presence..." With all inclusive presence, art becomes either didactic or
decorative.
Without having a space for absence, there will be no space for
contemplation and the artistic creation becomes flat and artless. Only
an art with absence can address to a universal receiver. Both Keyt and
Khemadasa were able to produce radical, productive and resourceful
artistic creations.
National feelings
Their artistic concept is all inclusive where there is a place not
only for genuinely national feelings but also for an absence, which
cannot be filled within the nationalistic mindset. Their creative works
are valid for all orders of cultural receivers.
They provide a totality of experience for viewers and listeners. Both
masters one in painting and one in music have access to the dignity of
artistic languages of their medium.
As langauges can be either linguistic or non-linguistic, even not
only fine arts such as painting and music but fashion, design, sports,
food preparation etc. are also languages with their own sign systems.
However, even the modern post - structuralist philosophers of art and
culture have pointed out that to be a sign, there must be a mark. This
mark can also be the referent; which encourages the viewer or listener
to be intimate with the creative work.
In the Agni opera, those marks or referents are truly national, while
its music creates a radical and philosophical absence, which
necessitates the listeners to communicate with the opera using those
referents.
True music cannot exist without the absence, which bravely pushes the
listeners from their seats into a limbo of uneasiness. This irreducible
absence inherent in good music is the mark of musical greatness.
Only this absence can create infinity, a source of energy and
satisfaction to the listener. This radical absence will be repeated with
every musical phrase irrespective of identifiable musical expressions
such as familiar imitations of sound or lyrics.
Use of symbols
In Agni, those visible marks are the symbolism of the dawn of
civilization. Ginipathi or Prometheus has the mark of the sympathetic
gods for whom the whole nation worship.
This clear operatic sign is interpreted by Krishan Wickramasinghe
with his powerful voice delivery. The other identifiable signs of this
opera is created by young singers such as Indika Upamali, Subuddhi
Lakmini, Sumudu Pathiraja etc.
With their voice presentations and theatrical advances, they create
characters, which can be easily understood even by the untrained
listeners. Thus the character of Minipaba finely interpreted by Subuddhi
Lakmali represents the traditional womanhood and it is a marked presence
in the Asian cultural context.
Her presence as a character can easily be understood through her
structure of choreography and the status of her voice balancing.
However, Agni is not only the totality of those identifiable
characters and their symbolism within the cultural context of Monsoon
Asia. It is more than that. Its musical value goes beyond the characters
and their symbolism. The true value of the opera is inherent in its
music and the absence prevailing beyond and above the characters.
The maestro's music is governed by the dignity of music itself and
its structural arrangement. There it has an obvious similarity to the
paintings of George Keyt, which has its fascination not only in its
content or Sri Lankan figures but also in basic artistic elements such
as colours and lines and their unique arrangement. |
