Sinhala English Dictionary in a Steel Jail (2007)

Kingsley Gunatillake produced several works that employed books as their primary medium in the final years of the civil conflict. Marking a departure from his paintings, these works were closer in spirit to his works from the previous decade that used photocopied images and newspapers. In both instances, Gunatillake attempted to expose the deceit at play within printed matter. In works such as ‘War Text’, lines of toy soldiers perch inside trench-like enclosures, pointing their plastic weapons across the margin of the open book to an opposing group of toy militants. Similarly, ‘Sinhala English Dictionary in a Steel Jail’ makes explicit the failure of language and language policy. One of the artist’s most politically charged works, the imprisoned Sinhala dictionary is an overt critique of language and the role it played in Sri Lanka’s civil war. In 1956, following the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956, also known as the Sinhala Only Act, Sinhala replaced English as the official language of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon. The Act automatically disenfranchised a quarter of the country’s then population, namely the Tamil speaking communities across the island, who perceived the act as a threat to their language, culture and identity. The unrest it caused led to the first island-wide anti-Tamil riots in 1958, shattering the trust the communities once had for one another, laying the ground for one of the longest wars in modern history.

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