Transmutations
Salome Nanayakkara
July–November 2024,
On view at No. 5, Lunuganga, Bentota
Salome Nanayakkara is an artist based in Sri Lanka, who works mostly with recycled metal and other found objects. She has master’s degrees in English and in Counselling and Psychosocial work from the University of Colombo and works full time as a psychotherapist. Her art is informed largely by her practice in psychotherapy, which she uses to explore the complexities of human emotion and experience and the healing agency of creative practice.
In this newly-commissioned site-specific body of work she responds to Anil’s biography as an artist and environmentalist. Salome uses real and imagined depictions of animate forms often depicted in states of transition and renewal, which draws inspiration from a series of oral histories with family and friends of Anil, undertaken in the research for this exhibition. The installation draws from the disciplines of science and art, echoing the way Anil’s room served his pursuits in knowledge and expression as a painting studio and a laboratory.
