The president of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka Suresh Subramaniam and its General Secretary Maxwell de Silva met the International Olympic Committee Chairman Dr. Thomas Bach during the 24th ANOC General Assembly in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.
There the Sri Lankan duo handed over a painting done by Sri Lankan artist Dillai Joseph depicting the environment sustainability done under the theme “Give the Reef Another Chance”. NOC Sri Lanka initiated this environmental sustainability Programme in Polhena, Matara on June 25, 2019.
In that initiative, Joseph was also part of the program and took a very serious responsibility in creating its information centre. Joseph designed all the visual materials and contents for the centre to educate the public on the importance of the coral reefs.
“I, as an artist, have tried to capture the essence of this endeavour in my painting. It is no longer sufficient to conserve coral reefs, rather it is to go one step further, where proactive human intervention is needed to restore the reefs.
“The painting depicts a human hand giving out colour blobs to bring back life to somewhat dead corals (some parts of the coral are white). The stance of the human hand is also to have resemblance of the famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
“The creation and drawing a parallel, where we as humans have the ability to give life back to coral reefs not merely to stop at conservation,” said Joseph.