124Instant Nirvana PVT LTD (2000)
Bandu Manamperi (b. 1972)
Terracotta, plastic clothes hanger
Collection the artist
First shown: ‘Made in IAS’, Star Fort, Matara, Sri Lanka, 2000
In the late ’90s, many young artists from Colombo turned to everyday materials as a way to reevaluate the society around them. Prior to Bandu Manamperi’s performances that began in 2001, the artist made a number of key works that engaged with Buddhist practices and beliefs. ‘Instant Nirvana PVT LTD’ features an appropriated plastic clothes hanger often used by local ‘lotto sellers’ to sell state-sponsored lottery tickets. Manamperi replaces the scratch cards with terracotta sculptures in the shape of the Bo leaf and hangs them from the plastic pegs of the clothes hanger. The Bo leaf or sacred fig is worshipped
by Buddhists who believe that Lord Buddha gained enlightenment under a Bo tree, a sapling of which is believed to have been planted in Sri Lanka’s ancient capital Anuradhapura in 288 BC. Manamperi uses the idea of the lottery to expose how ‘religion’, ‘war’, and ‘peace’ have become commodities used
by the state for political and economic gain.
Gallery 1
Home, Land, Survey, Country
3GPS Drawing: Jaffna to Delft, 9.30 am to 10.30 am, Boat, 10 Feb 2015 (2015)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)
4GPS Drawing: Jaffna Hostel (Kalviyankadu) to Ramanathan Academy (Maruthanarmadam), Three-wheeler, 12 km, 26 April 2012 (2012)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)
5GPS Drawings, England 2011, Oxford to Paddington, Train, 1.01 pm to 2 pm, 2011 (2011)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)
7GPS Drawing: Kudirimale to Wilpattu National Park Gate, 53km, 1.40 pm to 5.40 pm, Jeep, 7 October 2017 (2017)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)
8GPS Drawing: Fuengirola to Córdoba, 8.30 am to 11.18 am, Bus, 9 August 2017 (2017)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)
9GPS Drawing: Babaragasthalawa to Kumana campsite, 10 km, 1.15 hr, Jeep Toyota 4×4, June 2011 (2011)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)
16If You Boycott the Elections the Penalty Is Death, PRRA, Peoples Revolutionary Red Army, Galle (1989)
Stephen Champion (b. 1959)
17Corridors of Power: Drawing and Modelling Sri Lanka’s Tryst with Democracy (2015)
Channa Daswatte (b. 1965), Sanjana Hattotuwa (b. 1977), Asanga Welikala (b. 1976)
20Ceylon Since Soulbury Part I: A History in Cartoons by Collette (1948)
Aubrey Collette (1920–1992)
Gallery 2
Gaze, Self, Portrait
Gallery 3
Landscape / Landscapes, Territory
Gallery 4
Loss, Belief, Mourning
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