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Bikaner House has, over the last few years, been showcasing brilliant Sri Lankan art in Delhi, much of which fiercely engaged point-blank with war, humanity, and nature. The cultural centre's CCA Gallery is now showing the first India solo of Colombo-based Shanaka Kulathunga, titled Silent Stories, and his work tugs at these themes through a spectrum that instead creeps up on you, beautifully and insidiously at the same time.
Such as in, say, a Romanticism-esque capture of the ferocity of wind on a tree, the subtle surrealism of a cluster of horses' heads that seem to still belong to the grass below, or a group of greedily joyful clowns, perched atop faceless, stomped-on people.
The ground floor houses the landscapes and cityscapes whose colourful harmony in deckered metropolitan chaos rather reminds me of Delhi, as much as I want to resist the easy trick of looking for yourself in every form of art. Kulathunga makes it hard to. Especially when he addresses our relationship with nature in the second ground-floor room’s paintings where human faces are clearer, coloured only so slightly by the Sri Lankan civil war. I want to call them portraits at first, but soon realise that I’ve neglected the black lambs, the bulls, and swans, the symbolisms of which could be talked about for days… such is the calmness of this confrontation.
I’ll say this, though. It’s only when I go upstairs that I realise just how much justice Art In Scape's curation, and the physical placement of the works made possible by Gallery Silver Scapes, do to this exhibition. As I reach the top of the stairs, I see a few painted plates from a distance, which made me wonder if it was just filler. Then I take a look up close, and turn left.
What I meet is Mirth and Might – a joker resting on a bull with a careless, almost snarky grin, surrounded by flowers, and then… nothing else. I don’t want to describe it further, because it’s a feeling best directly felt for the first time at the top of those stairs. This is the Magic Realism section. More seemingly unnatural colours, placements, subjects, and yet, they don’t feel like two flights away from what’s already been seen.
One of them, The Weight of Sounds, stands out as something I could imagine at a pinball arcade, strangely cartoonish but meaningful. Just as I try to shoo this random thought out, I’m met with a mention of a Mardi Gras parade in one of the paintings’ curatorial notes, which amuses me. In fact, the accompanying text to all of these paintings is relatively accessible – introducing viewers to some of the concepts with absolutely zero jargon. Whether you prefer that, it’s certainly rare, and refreshing.
Another room upstairs hosts more muted renditions of Kulathunga’s magic realism, which are also the actual closest to portraits. There aren’t many, but they’re unmissable. And the last corridor hosts his takes on sea views. Who doesn’t wistfully think of those in Delhi heat?
One last thing that rather tickled my fancy: the music. Typically nondescript at an art show. But on the second floor, for some reason when I visited, a speaker was playing… a cross between foreboding grungecore and bass-heavy EDM… and it worked. It just did. Don’t disagree before you go.
When: On till May 28. Mon-Sun. 11am-7pm.
Where: CCA Gallery, Bikaner House, Pandara Flats, Man Singh Road Area
How to enter: Take the gate near Haldiram’s if you can.
Nearest metro: Khan Market (so yes, dinner or lunch afterwards is sorted).