125Bullets (2007)

Kusal Gunasekara (b. 1974)

Wood, lacquer

Private collection, Colombo

First shown: ‘Draw the Line: An Exhibition of Lac and Brass Art’, Alliance Française de Kandy, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 2007

Many contemporary artists draw inspiration from Sri Lanka’s long and vital history of craft; its place in society is firmly rooted in state-sponsored manufacturing of national curios, to livelihoods defined by generations of knowledge and skills. Lacquerware is one of many such handcraft traditions practised in Sri Lanka. In his influential 1908 treatise ‘Mediaeval Sinhalese Art’, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) dedicates a complete section to the technique, under the chapter heading ‘Lac-Work’. Traditionally lacquer was derived from an intense labour process that involved grinding a resinous secretion produced by insects. The term ‘lac’ is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word ‘Laksha’ meaning 100,000, so named due to the number of insects required to produce the resin. According to Coomaraswamy, “the lacquer workers were organised into a professional group called ‘I-waduwo’ (arrow-makers).” In common with many of his contemporaries, Kusal Gunasekara references techniques and mediums that are inscribed with a host of socio-political contexts. ‘Bullets’ is made from lacquer and imitates the designs found typically on lacquerware produced for the tourist market and sold in government-owned shops. Gunasekara plays with the way that craft is either seen in a state of decline or revival. His choice of bullets in place of arrows replaces the dying tradition of one mode of warfare with the emergence of another.

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