Mountains, Myths & Metaphors

The 2012 Sethusamudram project will focus on using new media and metaphors to explore the connections with India and Sri Lanka. In the changing world how do artists negotiate the self, nation and the many narratives that are part of our identity as individuals and nations. Myths and metaphors are possibly the ideal visual language to negotiate these shared cultural geography and history/mythology that is part of this project. The artist’s recollect memory and personal narratives and it connect’s with oral history and mythology in an effort to speak about the personal and political.
Four artist’s Pradeep Kambathalli (India), Udaya Vir Singh (India) + Pradeep Chandrasiri (Sri Lanka) Janananda Laksiri (Sri Lanka), are working towards a collaborative exhibition at 1Shanthiroad studio and will present the outcome of the Sethusamudram project on 28th April to 10th May.

1Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery

Stories of Small Things

The second exhibition of 'Stories of Small Things' continues with the theme of perception and issues related to feminism, along with other social observations & concerns. The artists interact through their chosen subject to relate to a very personal story. The opinions and challenges portrayed through these works are their own.


This exhibition is an ode to artist Urmila Venuopal’s efforts in teaching, cultivating and popularising the art of woodcut printing in Sri Lanka, which is almost nonexistent.


The Fireflies Artist Network was founded through the Women Artists’ Colloquium (WAC) started by Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, as a programme that  encourages female artists in Sri Lanka to actively engage in their art practise.




1Shanthiroad studio/gallery

'Conversations across Cultures' An ongoing project

WORK IN PROGRESS by PALA POTHUPITIYE @ 1SHANTHIROAD

Open studio at 1Shanthiroad 13^th to 30^th April 2012.

Pala continues his obsession with mapping at 1shanthiroad. Pala collaborated with Gururaj H.S. and Suresh Jayaram and is also looking for others from the subcontinent to collaborate.

This project emerged from conversations between Pala Pothupitiye and Suresh Jayaram, in the context of artists exploring possibilities of cartography, by using boarders that separate nations to trigger new ways of negotiating territories in the age of new media, the Internet and through the lens of language, religion, race and politics.

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1.Shanthiroad studio/gallery

'In the Midst' A Performance by JANET MEANEY

Janet Meaney will be doing a live performance at 1Shanthiroad on Friday 13th 2012 at 6:30pm which references her experience of being amidst the diverse cultures of India.

Accompanying is an installation that speaks of Meaney's obsession for collecting discarded objects. It consists of a small collection of grinding stones made obsolete, having been replaced by larger faster machines.

About the Artist: Janet Meaney is a performance artist from Australia. She has studied BFA (Sculpture) USA 1979 and completed her PhD in Performance Art at the Australian National University.

She has exhibited in the USA, Canada and Australia apart from numerous performances in the public domian and in galleries over the past 8 years.

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1.Shanthiroad studio/gallery

'the pop of India/The Casting'

Theertha @ No.1 Shanthiroad 2012: ‘The pop from India’

There are many things that Sri Lanka has received from India in the 20^th century including the ‘sacks of dhal dropped from the skies’ in the late 1980s or early 1990s. In this exhibition a group of Sri Lanka artists are looking at, taking note of and engaging with a ‘thing’ that comes from sky from India to the interiors of Sri Lankan house holds: the Indian popular culture. Like ‘Mysore dhal’ that which is a sure presence in Sri Lankan meals, Indian popular culture is a definite ingredient in Sri Lankan cultural menus. Even though Mysore dhal and Indian popular culture are ubiquitous presences in Sri Lanka, there is, I guess, a clear difference in the way we, the Sri Lankans think about ‘Mysore dhal’ and Indian popular culture. We love ‘Mysore dhal’ and we are proud of our dhal recipes, and we are most profoundly appalled by the Indian inability to cook dhal ‘properly’! Indian dhal curry is too watery and tasteless! 

Jagath Weerasinghe

* This exhibition is part of the Sethusamudram Project a 3 year collaborative art project that Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka and1.Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery, Bangalore, India have developed collectively envisioning to engage with and address the highly complex and variegated history and links, similarities, shared anxieties, emotions and histories between India and Sri Lanka.

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'The Casting' by Leslie Johnson

My recent work is thematic suites of watercolours and sculptures that examine our coexistence with the world of objects and products. Through the process of re-imagining the overlooked and ephemeral; small figurines, fragments of text from the daily life are reworked into significance; inviting reconsideration of status and value. For 1.Shantiroad I am further exploring a project where I cast small sculptures from plastic packaging.  I became curious as to what this outer skin around products actually looks like and find a lot of humour in recycling the leftover packaging into objects with a potential value of their own.  What are we actually buying? An object or an object with a package and new potential use?

About the Artist: Leslie Johnson, born and raised in the US and Canada, has lived in Sweden since 1989. Her work has been exhibited in Moscow, New York; but widely in Scandinavia, where she has worked at the Valand School of Fine Arts in Göteborg Sweden, both as teacher and Director. Represented in Västerås, Göteborg, Borås Art museums as well as Swedish state and private collections; grants include one and two year grants from the Swedish State Arts Council and a residency 2010 (RIAA) in Buenos Aires.  She is published in Swedish art journals Ord & Bild, Paletten, Art Monitor.



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