Rupaneethan Pakkiyarajah seeks a connection between the different identities in Sri Lanka.
Words: Tina Edward Gunawardhana
Photograph: Damith Wickramasinghe
Born in Batticaloa in 1991, Rupaneethan Pakkiyarajah is a visual artist who hails from a family of artists and dramatists. Rupaneethan has been exposed to many outside experiences and international artists, all of whom have shaped his work.
Rupaneethan is not only a visual artist but is also a teacher of sculpture and drawing at the Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka. He grew up in the middle of a theatre of war which according to him has undoubtedly influenced his artistic oeuvre.
Invited by Sri Lanka’s leading art connoisseur Shanth Fernando to exhibit his work at the Paradise Road Galleries, Rupaneethan had presented a series of art which depicted landscapes and land-based conflicts, alongside the construction of identity in Sri Lanka.
Meticulously drawn fine details are the hallmarks of his work which observes not only how landscapes can embody caste, class, race and religious identities, but also offers space for difference and interdependency between people and the possibility of collective identity where connections can be forged across borders and divisions.
