“In Search of Connection” Solo exhibition | Sunday Observer

“In Search of Connection” Solo exhibition

28 March, 2021
Wind and Land, 2017, Pen, Brush and Ink on Drawing Sheet
Wind and Land, 2017, Pen, Brush and Ink on Drawing Sheet

“In Search of Connection”, a solo exhibition by Rupaneethan Pakkiyarajah will be held at the Paradise Road Gallery from April 1 to April 28.

In the exhibition, Rupaneethan explores the creation of identities and how this process is inherently othering and belittling to those we leave out of the identities we erect. Rupaneethan’s works explore these connections and disconnections, this cohesion and inherent exclusion.

To the artiste, these interwoven relationships between humans can be mapped out following the lines of electrical and telephone wires that crisscross maniacally across our island – linking paddy fields, hills, huts and houses to public buildings, churches, mosques and temples.

In the wake of the 2019 Easter Sunday Attacks, the non-physical borders between communities grew increasingly impermeable, only to be further cemented by Covid-19; and yet, the wires of connectivity remain, our identities reified stronger than ever.

Rupaneethan’s exhibition seeks to explore the idea of identity – his own identity, community-based identities and the way in which nature itself shapes our identities. Like our own bodies, the body of the earth can embody caste, class, race and religion – infusing these identities in the landscape itself; we see them reflected in our rivers, growing amongst our gardens and snaking between the paddy fields that dot our island.

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