The Rat Knot Collective is an alternative media platform made of several independent local creatives.
Uditha “X Cup Cake” Chirantha is part of this group of creative rebels who are making small waves in the Colombo art scene. He is also part of Avuli; their Threads of Existence exhibition showcased cyanotype and salt prints – a throwback to the era of early photography.
Observer Muse reached out to Uditha to see what’s up.
Q: How did Threads of Existence go?
A: It wasn’t a big deal really (laughs). I just did a video art there. It was a collaborative exhibition with Kaushalya and the others.
Q: What is Rat Knot Collective doing these days?
A: Generally we are doing archival work and documentaries. There isn’t anybody in Sri Lanka doing ‘Vice’ like content. Those guys are our main inspiration.
Let’s take a documentary about drugs for example. There are different ways of presenting the subject. In Sri Lanka, people focus on how bad drugs are. However nobody talks about the recreational aspect of drugs. There are so much off-beat stuff that is not been covered by the mainstream. We are just trying to figure out a way how to present that to the average audience.
The Rat Knot is about how a group of independent creators from multiple disciplines come together and do something totally experimental. The collective is made up of Darshani Rathnayake, Leon Alexander, Kaushalya Nandasena, Supun Cooray, Melii Santhiago, Yamini Umapthay and me.
Q: How did you get into analogue printing?
A: This didn’t come about solo. It was collaborative work done with Avuli. We were researching alternative printing methods and stumbled upon a method that doesn’t use digital, well not that much to be honest, but it is something that is not 75 percent digital. So we took some of our previous model shoots and made these prints.
Q: Tell us about your photography style
A: I didn’t study photography formally. I have a film background. We were part of a reading circle, conducted by the Sri Lanka Foundation – a philosophy reading circle. That’s where we got our primary inspiration; on different perspectives of thinking. This built the base for what we do now. That’s when I got into photography.
I don’t have a definite style of photography like “documentary”, “contemporary”, “landscape” or “street”. I still don’t understand where I fit in. I try to work experimentally and there are also my preferred aesthetics. Like what I think is beautiful when I take a photograph. But I’m more focused on how to “break” it.
Take for example, street photographers in Pettah. A photograph thinks that there is something interesting in the object. Maybe the photographer thinks that way because they haven’t been to Pettah before or it is new to them.
There is something about a culture when we go to a new country. Everything looks beautiful. It’s has nothing to do about “aesthetics”, we are just fooled because it’s a fresh experience.
So it’s really about how to break aesthetics – the really problematic parts in what we call “aesthetics”. We are fooled so much about beauty and take in ideologies wholesale.
There are people who photograph temples and of lakes and nature. But I’m really about breaking aesthetics – on how to make a new visual.
Q: Who’s the greatest photographer of this generation?
A: I can’t think of a name but there is one. There is one I like though. Gregory Crewdson is a contemporary photographer. He does studio type stuff where he builds the entire scene from scratch like film set. The sets take two-three months.
In Sri Lanka it’s Shehan Gunasekara.
Q: In a digital era, why is old techniques important?
A: I don’t like exploring mediums per se. I do salt printing as a way of experimentation. There is a degree of authenticity to it. The colours are different, there is more weight in these prints and there is nostalgic volume.
But I don’t idealise the medium. Platinum printing, cyanotype, this stuff is awesome. I firmly believe that the medium is just not important, it doesn’t provoke much thought. There is nothing new.
Q: The rich kids go around with their expensive gear. But, you are truly an independent creator. What are your challenges?
A: There are definitely challenges in Capital that we have to face. All this equipment belongs inside Capital. There is gate keeping; those with the resources have access.
Those who speak English have an advantage so they tell us to also to learn English to move forward.
But I think that as long as Capital functions, these will be there. We might not have the gear but it doesn’t matter. There is no set rule that you need a good camera to do photography, but there are instances that you need gear – like a telephoto lens when you want to zoom in.
It goes both ways. As a matter of fact, you don’t need a camera to do photography as there are people who have built pin-hole cameras out of a beer can and print on cyanotype. Cyanotype chemicals can be bought for Rs. 1,000. There are definitely limits though.
There are also photographers who have all the gear but their photos are tasteless.
Cover picture by Uditha Chirantha
