{"id":2213,"date":"2024-08-13T06:33:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T06:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/?page_id=2213"},"modified":"2024-08-18T06:03:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T06:03:43","slug":"decorative-arts-workshop-sri-lanka-2009","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/?page_id=2213","title":{"rendered":"Decorative Arts Workshop, Sri Lanka, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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At the end of November this year I was privileged to attend the second Decorative Arts Workshop to be held in Colombo, \u00a0initiated and coordinated by Ayesha Abdur-Rahman. \u00a0A chance email forwarded to me by a friend in the middle of the year led to my discovery of the Workshop and galvanised my long held plans to re-visit the country of my birth after an absence of thirty years. \u00a0To my great delight, \u00a0in correspondence with Ayesha we discovered that we had been at school together in the 1950s,

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and that she remembered me, \u00a0and the work of my father, \u00a0Aubrey Collette (a political cartoonist and foundation member of the \u201843 Group, \u00a0Sri Lanka\u2019s first Modernist painting movement). \u00a0Research into his work and a desire to catalogue existing pieces in Sri Lanka were further motivations for my trip.<\/p>

The Workshop was held over three consecutive days in three comfortable and reasonably well-appointed venues \u2013 The Galle Face Hotel, \u00a0The American Center and The Fullbright Center. \u00a0The organizations that hosted and provided sponsorship were very hospitable in looking after the participants with lunches and afternoon teas. \u00a0The initial presentation by Dr. \u00a0SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda on \u201cDecorating the Landscape, \u00a0Ancient Sri Lanka and the use of Rock and Water as forms of Art\u201d, \u00a0set a high standard of thoughtful and visual delivery, \u00a0and though subsequent varied presentations, \u00a0the stage was set for the discussion of detailed scholarly information by people passionate about their subject matter. \u00a0Over the next few days we learned about topics as varied as the depiction of objects in wall paintings found in the remains of the mediaeval Tivanka temple at Polonnaruwa (Ayesha Abdur-Rahman), \u00a0the \u201cForgotten trade of Elephants as depicted in Dutch paintings and maps\u201d (Professor K. D. Paranavitana) and \u201cAngels in Sri Lankan Buddhist Art\u201d (Bindu Urugodawatta).<\/p>

As an Australian Ceylonese of Dutch Burgher descent I was particularly interested in the Workshop\u2019s insights into the period of Dutch occupation and the legacy of its art and architecture. \u00a0Presenters from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as well as local scholars provided enlightenment. \u00a0Of particular interest was a presentation by Martine Gosselink, \u00a0head of the History Department of the Rijksmuseum, \u00a0about a comprehensive website she has set up – \u201cAn Atlas of Shared Heritage\u201d- which documents and disseminates information including maps, \u00a0images of works of art and architecture covering the entire Dutch Colonial period worldwide, \u00a0and is a tremendously valuable resource. \u00a0Ashley de Vos, a local architect and historian argued that Dutch \u201cArchitecture\u201d in Sri Lanka was confined to churches, \u00a0warehouses and forts and led a bus tour to the 17thC.\u00a0 Dutch Church, \u00a0Wolvendaal, \u00a0and the Dutch Museum to assess their architectural merit.<\/p>

My other area of interest, \u00a0Textiles, was covered comprehensively on the third day of the Workshop. \u00a0As a tapestry weaver I am always fascinated by the form and structure of woven material as well as its design. \u00a0Chandra Thenuwara, \u00a0a locally esteemed textile technologist and artist spoke about the history of the Sri Lankan hand weaving industry and the Dumbara weavers and introduced us to the traditional styles incorporated in the intricate \u201cdiyakachchi\u201d loincloth, \u00a0ancient examples of which we were able to later view at the Colombo and Kandy museums and in contemporary reproduction in the Dumbara Valley.<\/p>

Textile expert from the UK, \u00a0Dr. \u00a0Steven Cohen delivered a well illustrated talk about the textile trade between India and Sri Lanka, \u00a0introducing us to the beautiful Indian chintzes, \u00a0somana tuppotiya, \u00a0and the gold brocaded ceremonial kasav tuppotiya which we were also able to view at museums later. \u00a0Examples of highly decorated canopies and temple cloths added visual impact to the knowledge he imparted in his presentation. \u00a0Rosemary Crill, from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London spoke about Sri Lankan textiles in the collection and showed similar examples of banners and temple hangings, \u00a0embroidered betel bags and garments acquired between 1855 and 2007.<\/p>

The third day was rounded out with a visit to the Colombo Museum where we were able to enter the storage archive and handle precious textile pieces under the supervision of a curator.\u00a0 A visit to the Sapumal Foundation followed, \u00a0which houses the paintings of the\u00a0\u201843 Group, \u00a0and there I was able to see examples of my father\u2019s work first hand, \u00a0a tangible realisation of an emotional personal journey.<\/p>

I also participated in a three-day bus tour in and around Kandy along with the other International participants in the Workshop to view textile production and temple treasures first hand. \u00a0This afforded the eight of us a more intimate experience of travelling and living together and the consequent sharing of ideas and expertise in a more informal way.<\/p>

I am grateful to have visited Sri Lanka with the Decorative Arts Workshop as a focus \u2013 it provided me not only with knowledge I will continue to pursue, but also the company of like- minded artists and scholars whom I will continue to correspond with and be inspired by. \u00a0I congratulate Ayesha on creating such an interesting and varied program and I greatly look forward to attending future gatherings.<\/p>

Cresside Collette, January 2010.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of November this year I was privileged to attend the second Decorative Arts Workshop to be held in Colombo, \u00a0initiated and coordinated by Ayesha Abdur-Rahman. \u00a0A chance email forwarded to me by a friend in the middle of the year led to my discovery of the Workshop and galvanised my long held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2213","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2321,"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2213\/revisions\/2321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srilankadecorativearts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}