Yāttirai

Migration has been the constant epicentre of my being. Throughout my personal journey, financial circumstances have created constant disjunctions of not belonging, resulting in the story of a nomadic living style. My father's entrepreneurship as a small-scale manufacturer of recycled paper bags generated significant income as the breed winner, but it constantly caused us to be in turmoil by shifting our territorial inhabitants. Each memory, inheritance, and narrative I assimilated created a presence of nostalgia within my identity.

 Mapping a collage embodiment of the organic presence of migration and fragmented identities fused onto the cocoon surfaces of the paper bags. Oral narratives and memories become a tangible presence on each cover, moving away from a biographical focal point and into perceiving a universal occurrence of a being oscillating between territorial temporalities.

The Ramayanam (a mythological text) lays the foundations for understanding and recurring cosmic presence of not belonging or nomadic existentialism by drawing on mythological and literary scripts such as Geetha Saram (a brief version of the holy script Bhagavath Geetha) and Vaikunda Ammanai (based on the Mahabharat mythological script, recited during funeral gatherings). Their assertions within the contextual premise lead to paradoxes with the presence and past of migration and nomadic existence. The lives of gods, kings, and other characters in epic and literary stories are no exception, as they convey the experiences of people who have been affected by a series of displacements and changing lifestyles, all of which are unstable in epic and literary stories. 

They've had comparable experiences to ours. Life events and stories like this are turned into epic and literary works. We can examine our lives and reassure ourselves through them without getting tired of calculating our misfortunes. "I aim to include the lyrics of epic and literary stories directly into the artwork, putting into words and visuals what is spoken about the unsettled existence and sequence of displacements of individuals who are viewed as heroes or characters in the stories, as well as their personal concerns." The fragile presence and acceptance of the nomadic lifestyle of constant migration can be seen throughout the present circumstances. They could have brought sociopolitics to the capital, but people are constantly adapting to and succumbing to these situations and environments. 

My layering works include disjunctions of presence, memory, identity, and belonging into a cosmic presence of thresholds in the cycle of existence. My most recent body of work connects nodules of my personal experience documenting changes in Colombo's landscapes. Mass occurrences of displacement and accumulation of heritage or culturally significant sites drawback personal retellings of searching and build a testimonial convoy of belonging. Could these spaces again exist or reconnect with living memory? Adding intricate materials and forms gradually exposes tensions—elements representing myth and cosmological flow. 

Retraces as apparitions, always in a precarious state between. "Arugampul" (Bermuda grass) and was added as an organic material grown flourishingly across the lush, marshy landscapes of Batticaloa. One might not see it in Colombo's spaces. Its presence and absence tend to reiterate the personal journey of a nomadic being, a migrant, who’s constantly in search of belonging. Brown paper bags exist as recurring materials in my practice.

 They are still manufactured by my father today and are of significant material importance. These are recycled paper bags utilised as packaging bags for goods and other purposes. Images are composed as fragmented apparitions of scattered recollections. How can someone who is constantly moving remember where they belong? These paper bags exist as convoys of fragile lamentations of memory, recollection, and dismembered tenures. Collaging fragile materials such as paper, tissue paper, and cobwebs, creating surfaces with continuous monochromatic hues these hues are recollections of memories, slowly fading into oblivion; the lush, green capes of Batticaloa lagoon camouflage into the surface of a brown bag.