Buddhism through artistes' eyes

Nipuni WIMALAPALA

Artistes of SAARC countries together would create outstanding aesthetics mixed with South Asian uniqueness. Actualizing the South Asian artistic potentiality, The SAARC Cultural Centre in Colombo installed another breathtaking exhibition of photography and painting, 'Lens and Brush' on the occasion of SAARC International Conference on Archeology of Buddhism; Recent Discoveries in South Asia.

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa viewing an exhibit

The Centre organized the exhibition in association with the High Commission of Sri Lanka in India, and the India-Sri Lanka Foundation. 'Lens and Brush' contained photographs of Buddhist Sites and Art Heritage of South Asia by eminent photographer, filmmaker, art historian, Benoy K. Behl in parallel with the paintings of regional artistes living in Sri Lanka.

The painting exhibition was subtitled as 'The Lord Buddha through Contemporary Eyes: An Exhibition of Paintings by Contemporary Artists' organized by the SAARC Cultural Centre, Sri Lanka in association with Bank of Ceylon and the University of Visual and Performing Arts. 'Lens and Brush' was held at J D A Perera Gallery from August 21 to 26. Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the exhibition, Speaker of Parliament, Chamal Rajapaksa, said that the SAARC Cultural Centre has been the hub of all the cultural programmes done among regional countries for years. It helps a lot in uniting South Asian aesthetics together.

"This is definitely a perfect platform for regional artistes to meet and share their capabilities while exposing them to the whole region.

Holding this type of exhibitions is a very good initiative to motivate art student and other art lovers to reach intellectual professionalism in art with confidence.

This would be a cognitive, reasoning, comprehensive and constructive outlet of art with exceeding creativity.

The regional cooperation will further be strenghtened if both traditional and modern media are used in the process," he further stressed. Photographs by the prominent figure, Behl, added colour to the exhibition.

He is a filmmaker and art historian famous for his tireless and prolific output of work over the past 32 years.

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa with the artistes Pictures by Ranjith Asanka

He has taken over 35,000 photographs of Asian monuments and art heritage. He has made 100 documentaries on art history.

His exhibits have been displayed in 28 countries around the world. He is known for his extremely sensitive photography of Buddhist art which provides a deep insight into the gentle and compassionate message of the art.

The painting exhibition encompasses a wide spectrum of paintings which reveals the Buddha in animate as well as in symbolic forms as perceived by contemporary artists living in Sri Lanka.

There are several types of artistes including professionals and young four-year old beginners. The purpose is to train them well to be established in national and international level.

The Buddha's concepts of love and compassion which need to be instilled and enshrined in the heart of every human being is raised via the exhibition referring to the life of the Buddha. The value of living a harmonious life by everyone is the message they want to pass to the society.