An artist finds healing in fragile ecologies

Sri Lankan artist Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah looks at how the ecology suffers the ravages of war but helps humankind heal

- Anindo Sen

When Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah says that flowers have no race or creed, its deep underlying philosophy hits hard. "They accompany us on our journeys, serving as silent witnesses in funerals, ceremonies, and rituals. They represent and remind us of our departed loved ones. Flowers never cause strife or devastation; instead, they quietly offer beauty and meaning as they bloom." Besides featuring as potent motifs in his work, flowers have also inspired the title of his ongoing solo exhibition—No Race, No Colour—at Experimenter gallery in Kolkata.

The Sri Lankan multimedia artist's work has been shown at numerous festivals and art events such as the Sharjah Biennale 15 in 2023 and the 2024-Colomboscope, Sri Lanka's quasi-biennial contemporary art gathering. There, his work stood out for its cathartic response to the collective ordeal that the Tamil community had undergone in the country.

Born in 1989 in the predominantly Tamil region of Batticaloa, on the eastern fringes of the island, Pakkiyarajah and his family grew up enmeshed in the throes of the conflict. Their village lay exposed, located at the fault lines between the LTTE and the government forces, and suffered every time the fighting escalated. Having seen death at close quarters in his formative years and experienced profound personal loss, torture and dislocation, he has channelled his embodied trauma phenomenologically into a thought-provoking practice over the years.