Ranil Senanayake Archives

Fighting the Fires of Climate Change Through Art-by Anoma Wijewardene Source:Groundviews Today is the Global Day of Climate Action Themes of sustainability and environmental degradation have pervaded my work since 2004, long before climate change or the extinction rebellion became global political issues. Existential anxieties have always driven my art making process. Fueled by my horror at the depletion of our natural resources and in growing disbelief at our rampant pillaging of the planet that sustains us, I focused on these burning issues in seven of my exhibitions. Initially, my paintings were nuanced and implicit, but the escalating severity of the devastation resulted in increasingly interactive, even activist, installations. The world has woken up to the fact that life on this planet may be endangered beyond repair, when it is almost too late. However, scientists sounded warning bells as early as the 1950s when the data showed signs of the ...

The New Year Bird! – By Des Kelly So now, folks, we have “The New Year Bird!” This wonderful little “story” about the Sri Lankan Koha, brings to mind so many other happy stories about birds (the feathered kind), it seems to me that this Cuckoo (Koha) has been picked out of the dozens of varieties that exist in our little Island, to represent “Aluth Avuruddha” or Sinhalese/Tamil New Year, which begins in April, each year. The Koha may not possess the most beautiful, melodic twitter in the World, but it’s long drawn-out “koo-ooo” is heard almost incessantly during this new-year period, a never-ending mating call of the “Koha” to entice a “Kohi” (I do love being a wordsmith, at times), to form a bond with him and produce a “kohu” or two. I did enjoy reading Dr.Ranil Senanayake’s “writing”, sent to me by none other than the Special Cartoonist ...