Home

News

Politics

Issues

Focus

Editorial

Spotlight

Insight

Sports

Business

Review

Arts

Letters

Nutshell

Interviews

Fashion

Archives

Alefiya's Madness!

By  Risidra Mendis 

Mosaic is a form of art that only a few can master. But once mastered there is no limit to the number of designs and styles that one can do. Mosaic is a decorative art form that uses 'tesserae' or small pieces of glass, marble, ceramic or stone to create images and patterns. This is an extremely adaptable medium where an endless variation of subjects, materials, colours and applications have been explored and used over the years.

History

The history of mosaic began over 5000 years ago. It was the Chinese and the civilisations of Asia minor that first used pebbles to make a variety of different patterns in their gardens. Many of the mosaics preserved at, for example, Pompeii were the work of Greek artists.

Today, this ancient practice is not confined to one set of ideas, as mosaic artists have the freedom to express their thoughts and ideas by using a wide variety of materials and techniques that their predecessors could only dream of.

The time has now come for art lovers of Sri Lanka to experience and see what this art of mosaic is all about. A mosaic artist, Alefiya Akbarally, having mastered this amazing form of art, is about to hold an exhibition titled Alefiya's Madness in Sri Lanka.

Akbarally's love for mosaic art began a few years ago. Passionate about art since her childhood days Akbarally went on to become an accomplished artist with many successful exhibitions to her name. However, this is the first time that Akbarally will hold an exhibition on mosaic art.

Akbarally's interest in Islamic Art and architecture began with a visit to Spain and Italy a couple of years ago, where she got the inspiration and impetus to delve into this fascinating form of art.

In Australia Akbarally received formal training and acquired the necessary technical skills to produce mosaics. Ever since then she has done much work with this medium, where she has incorporated her art into practical and usable items such as chairs, tables, frames, mirrors and beautiful wall art.

"If you compare Roman, British and Italian mosaics, you will notice that the British examples are simpler in design and less accomplished in technique," says Akbarally.

According to her, with the rise of the Byzantine Empire from the 5th Century onwards, centered on Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey), the art form took on new characteristics. "These included Eastern influences in style and the use of special glass tesserae called smalti, manufactured in northern Italy. These smalti were made from thick sheets of coloured glass. Smalti have a rough surface and contain tiny air bubbles and they are sometimes backed with reflective silver or gold leaves," explained Akbarally.

Intense study

Her intense study in mosaic art has made Akbarally a well versed and knowledgeable artist in the country.  "In the west of Europe, the Moors brought Islamic mosaic and tile art into the Iberian peninsula in the 8th Century, while elsewhere in the Muslim world, stone, glass and ceramic were used for mosaic art. In contrast to the figurative representations in Byzantine art, Islamic motifs are mainly geometric and mathematical," says Akbarally. Some examples can be seen in Spain at the Great Mosque at Cordoba and the Alhambra Palace.

However, in Arabic countries a distinctive decorative style called zillij uses purpose-made ceramic shapes that are further worked by hand to allow them to tessellate (fit together perfectly to cover a surface).

According to Akbarally, the Art Nouveau movement also embraced mosaic art. "In Barcelona, Antoni Gaudi worked with Josep Maria Jujol to produce some stunning ceramic mosaics of the Guell Park in the first two decades of the 20th Century. They used a technique known as 'trencadis' in which tiles (purpose-made and waste tiles) covered surfaces of buildings. They also incorporated broken crockery and other objects, a revolutionary idea in formal art and architecture," notes Akbarally.

Akbarally went on to say that a very influential site with regard to mosaic art is the La Maison Picassiette (in Chartres, northern France). "The idiosyncratic work of Raymonde Isidore between 1938 and 1964 is worth noting. As a middle-aged manual worker, Isidore covered his entire house and garden with intricate mosaics of broken crockery.  His nickname (Picassiette) came from a French expression meaning a 'scrounger': This expression - pique assiette - is the name given today to this very popular style of mosaic," Akbarally explained.

Work of crafts people

Mosaic art in general is thought of more as the work of crafts people than artists. "Perhaps this is the difficulty that people have in accepting the fact that mosaics often have a dual function. For example as flooring and also because it is an accessible, non-elitist form of creativity," said Akbarally.

On display at the exhibition is an assortment of artifacts elaborately and exquisitely done by Akbarally to make your home, garden or helipad a beautiful place.

Alefiya's Madness will be held from May 29 to 31 at the Hermitage on Gower Street from 9.30 a.m to 6 p.m. 

I Was Not Born Yesterday

I WAS Not Born Yesterday, (Mama Ipadunee Iyee Nemai) an adaptation by senior dramatist and writer M. Safeer will go on the boards  at the Lumbini Theatre on May 28 at 7 pm.

Saheer has based his theatre production on Josef And Maria by German dramatist Peter Tureni.

The Sinhala script is by Dr. Ashoka de Silva.  I Was Not Born Yestersay will launch popular tele and film acrtress Semini Iddamalgoda as a theatre actress who will be cast alongside veteran actor Udeni Alwis to share the lead roles.

Lighting, designing and operating of the production is by Wasantha Kumara, dance designing by Nilan Maligaspe, set designing by  M. Safeer and costume designing by Hemantha Pradas.

Stage management is by Nalaka Jinendra, still photograpy by Udeni Alwis and make up by  Sumedha Hewawitharana. Directed by M. Safeer, I Was Not Born Yesterday is presented by Inter Act.

Solar Hit and more 

His acting career commenced at the age of six with his first film Nommara 17. His talent as an actor soon made him try his hand at music where he became a hit among young teens at the time.

Today Harendra Sankha Prasad Pieris heads the musical band Solar Hit a young musical group consisting of four girls and five boys. "My uncle Hemasiri Sellapperuma is a film director and it is through him that I was first introduced to the film world," says Harendra.

Speaking to The Sunday Leader Harendra said as a dancer in Solar Hit, he has over 3000 performances to his credit.  Members of the band include Harendra, Dinesh, Suresh, Manoj, Manju, Sumithra, Midon, Rasanga and Madhusha. Unlike other bands in Sri Lanka that work with limited variety in music, Solar Hit has the special ability to mix ballet with Western music in order to get a range of musical tones.

"We as a band feel the audience should get what they want," says Harendra. For Harendra dancing, acting and music has always been a part of his life. His mother Chandra Muthuthanthri was a film producer.

"Though I took part in many films my interest was in dancing and music. This is why I got involved with Solar Hit," says Harendra. His experience in Indian dancing has benefited the group as he teaches the other members the steps.

After their performance at the Tower, Solar Hit was successful in getting many contracts at the BMICH, The Lions Club, Goodbye 97/98. The Gypsy Ball 97, Green Breeze 98/99 , etc.

Solar Hit took part in the Rasa Risi Gee programme on Sirasa TV and Manohari TV programme on Rupavahini. Solar Hit have their own dance steps and design their own costumes, which makes them an original music group.

Over the storm, the doom song of the drums 

The nights may wear their crust of stars: and the days their golden haloes, but for Maureen Seneviratne, after the days of young love, years of happy togetherness, her classmate days ("... it had never ever dawned on me to identify my dear friends ethnic backgrounds...") - days passed so thoughtlessly, blissfully, she heard the drums. At first, she tells us. "We missed out completely on the banked fires... grievances centuries old. being stoked into flames.. If any political storms were gathering, well we did not see the clouds."

Yes, happy Sri Lanka. Maureen begins with the times we shared. The August 1948 holiday, she tells of, "was in my father's home in Anuradhapura. Years of taking measured strides to make dreams come true - to rebel if the need be, to be a journalist. But slowly, stealthily, the drums began their tattoo; so faint at first, then rising to a madcap rhythm demanding that they be heard.

Maureen cannot dismiss the death drums. To her, May 1958 brought that "unforgettable day of terror and unimaginable horror. Men and women, helpless were being assaulted. Smoke was spiraling in the sky from houses set ablaze. "Who is prepared, even now, to answer her questions, give answer in a voice loud enough to rise over the drums of doom? This book has been written with love, despair, hope and again, love. How many minds have taken it all in, felt the red iron of ruin, the tattering of joy and the desolation of a once-peaceful, well-knit society? Monsters of divisiveness were created by politicians who built themselves up on the gullibility of the people. The terror of May 1958, she says, proved that the road taken by those in power and some of their particular policies that were put in place, had failed miserably."

Maureen writes with remarkable effect, her memories of the good, the decent, the honorable countering her livid horror of a country rolling down a slope. Naturally, she castigates without mercy. It is this quality of outrage that makes the book so compelling. "We were young, we were merry and even pain and death did not deter us. Other's pain and death. Sadly, we left politics to the politicians, not realising that in the main by the very nature of their being and by their choice of policies, they were bunglers and blunderers, selfish and power-hungry, always have been and always will be." And again: "I have been constrained to admit that the miasma rises from the bottom. The people are corrupt themselves. All of society is tainted. We get the politics and politicians we deserve."

Then, unbelievably, the manic drums drop to a low-key sob. They rose when Bandaranaike was assassinated, but there followed the era of Sirimavo and with a record of take-overs, nationalisation, laws and actions that created further socio-cultural tensions, rifts and divisions among the communities. Maureen is no side-taker - never has been, and I must say that her years of journalism under the truly greats of this country, helped enormously.

The Lasting Storm is a narration, starkly told, no frills, very matter-of-fact actually, and yet, it moves in a way that grips - from happy times past to 1948 onwards when, as Maureen says, "ever since the first parliament, kissing began to go by favour," to political stooges and politicians' goons. "Those who formed the backbone of society but did not go after those in political power, were left to rot! Power corrupts. There is no doubting it. It is impossible for an ordinary citizen to believe, to even try to comprehend to what extent a politician will go today to hold on to power: what lies they are capable of mouthing: deluding even themselves that what they are stating is true!"

The pace of narrative is smooth and presented in a manner where past glimpses are juxtaposed with the worst of the present to make the contrasts sometimes too horrible to think of. This is where the book actually trembles with power. Where was the JVP insurgency of 1971 most insistent and pat comes a police officer's answer: "Where the jaggery trees grow." Even the exodus to the Middle East does not go uncommented on. "Now, thousands of our women and our men have gone out to the Middle East as servants. Is that a reflection of our education system, or their inability to aspire to higher posts?"

She tells of the monstrous and shameful torture and killing of a young Buddhist monk and a beauty queen, Miss Manamperi, who was also raped by the armed forces in a southern rehabilitation camp. And, most telling of all, was what the incumbent monk of Rhamba Vihara in Mahanagahula said. "What we forget to our cost is that the great Parakramabahu's father was a Tamil prince. That Vijayabahu I rid this country of Chola-Thamil occupation, but his own palace guard was composed of Tamil warriors and that he gave his daughter, Ratnavali, to a Tamil prince. The island people must have been much of an ethnic mixture in those times also but no civil wars were fought on that issue."

Maureen spares nothing. She tells of the "Great Divide" of 1977: "The bell of division, the bell of doom had already been struck for Sri Lanka. Even the teachers of the Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, occupied the Staff Room - Tamils on one side, Sinhalese on the other. The people were sitting on an inferno, waiting for the spark that would unleash its fury. It burst into scorching rivers of flame in July 1983 and the registers of death were cramped with entries. The drums beat maddeningly and other drums made of it a pounding ensemble of cruel death - the Pettah bus stand; the Department of Telecommunication; the Hotel Lanka Oberoi ; Air Lanka aircraft; the Maradana railway station; the Central Bank; the Dalada Maligawa; fears of Indian invasion; parippu drops; the coming of the IPKF; the second JVP revolt terror and counter-terror; the assassination of Premadasa; Richard de Zoysa and Gamini Dissanayake.

This is grandmother's tale and grandma Maureen brings it to a fitting end.

"My darling grandchildren, your own future is as insecure as anyone else's in Lanka  where its trees are being destroyed, its soil, in batches is being polluted, its lakes and rivers are running dry; the stinking mounds of garbage remain uncleared. We live in times when the future cannot be even reasonably predicted. I have seen many facets of the wild, dark, sinister play. The incalculable loss in terms of progress and development to the large numbers of our people, tied to the politicians gross greed, ambition, hunger for the best of the wine. There is no reward for hard work and honesty and dedication in Sri Lanka today. It is a country more fissured, more splintered than ever.."

Do you hear the drums? They beat insistently on. Shall we dance?

- Carl Muller