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80 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 81
Chandraguptha Thenuwara
/ Sri Lanka b.1960 /
A line on a canvas
2004 / Pen and ink on canvas / 91.4 x 121.9cm / Acc. 2006.039 / Purchased 2006. Queensland Art
Gallery Foundation
Chandraguptha Thenuwara
A line on a canvas
2004,
Peace
2004
Chandragupta Thenuwara’s paintings respond to Sri Lanka’s
turbulent modern history, underpinned by 30 years of civil war
between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam.
Peace
commemorates the temporary peace
brokered by the Norwegian government in 2002. It uses white
to represent mourning, ceasefire and surrender, and a grid of
white barrels, which Thenuwara sees as naked or neutral, and
which dissolve together to form a textured surface. In
A line
on a canvas
, he uses an extremely fine black ink line to draw
figures and camouflage them within other lines, echoing ideas
of concealment and masquerade. Memories of works by
rangoli
artists in India,
kolam
works by Sri Lankan Tamils and prehistoric
drawings inspired Thenuwara’s exploration of the medium,
and line in particular; on closer viewing,
A line on a canvas
reveals
hidden images in the positive and negative space, of destruction,
limbs, weapons and disabled persons.