'Time, lost and Found'

Paintings from a burning desire:

'No Ideas but in Things' (William Carlos Williams)

Budda's feet amongst Lotus Flowers was my first sighting of an early Mahen Perera painting done some 6 yrs ago. It was beautiful - fresh, alive and spiritual. I wanted to meet this artist and the search began. Mahen was out of the country studying in Singapore. A newcomer to the island, I had learnt to be patient - I will meet him one day! I thought of the painting.

Some months later I finally tracked him down. As I am greeted warmly by this cheeky, impish, young man in the lane, he asks 'How am I finding Sri Lanka?' It had not been a good week! We walked into his airy, spacious and contemporary studio that looks out to the sea.

The light reflects onto his work. My eyes are drawn to the four intimate canvases hung together - can this be the same artist? My eyes keep returning, mesmerized by the neutrality of colours, ochre, gray, ash, a hint of blue and the subtlety of tone and texture - so simple and yet so complex. Each painting is interconnected with the other, layered and multifaceted. Mahen's playfulness with media is apparent - he takes risks - he has moved on. He assures me that he has no set preconceived ideas - each piece is individualistic. We sit and chat about gesture, movement and use of space (A train goes past 'a breather' he says laughingly). We talk about the interconnection between art and drama and how this has not been utilized in Sri Lanka. He speaks of the need for 'performance art' exhibitions.

It is quite clear Mahen doesn't paint for money. He paints from a burning desire, a passion. There is a duality about his work that reflects Sri Lanka itself. We wander over to his sculptures - made from canvas, washed, soaked, rung and squeezed. The cleansing process is complete. Twisted, knotted, gnarled and shaped into form. It reminds me of a rhythmic, ritualistic Greek Drama. Spontaneous drawings on the surface, these lines become creases on the canvas. 'It's how you dive into the material', he said, as his hand movements embody the gestures of the form. Mahen's raw objects are resting on a long wooden bread table. The oiled table, seductive in itself, takes on part of the ritualistic installation.

Two of Mahen's canvas sculptures are mounted on the wall in a glass box - another dimension given to the viewer, a distancing that reads in multiple ways.

Mahen's new works are more like something from an archeological dig. He has de constructed then reconstructed with bending, squeezing, molding and sewing the canvas. The primal rituals of daily life we instinctively get connected to. The forms take on an unfinished feel - a token of something representational.

I am struck by the sheer size and diversity of Mahen's works. There is a huge canvas that has been ripped, hacked and tightened into knots, re connecting with other knots, layers upon layers, a web of life and death. There is an energy, intensity and addiction to the work. For him it is a cathartic process. He reminisces about his childhood and how his mother would take him to hang a coin in a cloth on the Bow tree. 'A wish to cure your disease'.

Mahen is quite fascinated with the precariousness between life and death. He questions his identity and his experimentation with new forms. Mistakes sometimes becoming part of his work that take on a new dimension.

A keen Biology student who was going to study medicine, he loved examining anatomical structures of animals, stones, the deterioration of a broken foot, a church step and rendering botanical drawings of fruits and trees.

There is a sensitivity required from the viewer to get close to Mahen's work. Instinctively connected to the work, it is apparent that the relationship between the artist and the canvas is stronger now than it has ever been. Mahen Perera's exhibition 'Time, lost and Found' featuring his recent works will be at the Barefoot Gallery, commencing June 5 to 28.

- Sarah Craig

Performing Arts

The Overseas School

of Colombo