New Perspectives: Women Artists in Sri Lanka

Anoli Perera (AP): How did I become an artist? I would say it just happened...maybe it was fate for me to be an artist, while my mother's plan was for me to become a lawyer and marry a doctor. On both counts, I disappointed her. I was not trained formally as an artist...so it was pretty much a self-taught, self-searched, and circumstantially determined effort. I graduated from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a liberal arts degree: studying Sociology, Political Science and Economics. From there, I did a postgraduate diploma in Political Science as my father, who was a senior administrator in the government, had aspirations to see me join the diplomatic service. I joined a leading hospitality company instead probably because it was more glamorous and better paid.

I met my husband Sasanka in the 1st year at university...we were batch mates. He is a Professor of Anthropology now. We were married in 1988 and left to the USA the same year for him to continue his graduate studies. It was then, as a spouse of a graduate student, that I started my career as an artist. As a child, I was good at art and, even in school, I was known as someone who had a talent for drawing. But in a very middle-class family like mine where emphasis was given for pursuing a more lucrative career, becoming an artist was not something that was entertained favourably. It was never an option. In the US, I was in this vacuum without all those social pressures to be somebody. I made a very lukewarm attempt at pursuing business management, but I was bored stiff. So, I turned to what I loved doing...drawing. That’s how I started and I was hooked. I have never looked back or thought of another career since then.

I have now practised art for over 30 years. Through that journey, my art has evolved from paintings to works with multiple mediums and formats. I would say I am at my best when I do installations and sculptural work that has labour intensive procedures and involves multiple mediums. My work tends to be multi-layered. Most of the time they end up also being large works. I think my challenge is to turn an idea into materiality without compromising the subversiveness and complexity of its meaning. I am driven not by art formalism but by the contexts of my living and wanting to engage with what I am confronted with. I choose to do that engagement through art. Most of my work has come out of personal experiences and my need to say something about it.

Jasmine Nilani Joseph (JNJ): I became fascinated by pastels and paintings when I was around three years old. I think that was my first impression of art. I have two older sisters; when they came home after school, they would draw and paint in their art and exercise books, and I would often sit and watch them. I would disturb them, because I took their colours and sat on their books. Sometimes, I ate the colours and I spent less time sleeping because I was focussing on their art making. We did not have electricity in those days, and some days, my mother and sisters switched off the lamp early at night, to make me go to bed and sleep. After I fell asleep, my sisters would start drawing and painting again. The next morning, I would see new drawings in their books. It happened often, and I realised they were trying to pull me away from my involvement with art .

It was for this reason that my interest became stronger. I would get punished for drawing in mathematics and other subject books. I grew up with art. In school, I studied Da Vinci and Michelangelo. I felt happy when I imagined that people would one day call me an artist. When I read about their art careers, I knew they were from Italy, so I thought if I wanted to become an artist, I had to be born in Italy or some other European country. I didn’t believe that it would be possible for a little girl, who grew up in a refugee camp and studied in a village school. However, I received good results in the advanced level exam, and I got selected to study Art and Design at the University of Jaffna. It was here that one of my teachers made me believe that I could become an artist if I followed my dream and worked hard.

My teacher prepared us with a good art education. I learned from visiting artists, and I attended artists’ talks and events in the University and Sri Lanka Archive of Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design. After my graduation in 2016, I continued my practice and did my first professional show at Saskia Fernando Gallery in 2017. This is how I became an artist.

Hema Shironi (HS): When I lived in Matale, it was my fifth home out of the eighteen houses I have lived in. During this time, my parents took me to an art class where I learned the basics of art. I was inspired by the foreign teacher, who was passionate about his work. He was married to a local artist and shared his practice with us.

My mother is an artisan, who creates works with different mediums, and this paved the path for me to pursue art. During my higher studies in art, Bachelors at the University of Jaffna, and Masters at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan, I had the opportunity to learn under many practising artists. The artist talks at the Jaffna Art Archive gave me knowledge and guidance that helped me to polish my art practice.

AP: When it comes to accessing resources such as art education, gallery representation, funding sources, and other opportunities, all artists, whether they are male or female, have to face the same competitive situations and criteria of selections. When one looks across the South Asian art scene, there are very powerful, well-established, and respected female artists, who have become role models for younger artists. I feel that while equal opportunities are presented to both male and female artists, the restrictions and expectations imposed on the playing field of each gender by the larger society/ community/ family etc are different. Women have to work harder to liberate themselves from these societal impositions in order to build up their practice. I think this is where women artists are disadvantaged as opposed to male artists. Opportunities are there but building one’s practices to reach/ access/ or to become available for these opportunities is a challenge.

In the 1990s in Sri Lanka, art making started changing, bringing in more contemporary thought into the local art discourse by the 90s Trend artists. This transformation opened up an intellectual foundation for feminist art practices to emerge. However, it was a situation where the socio-cultural predicament of women still had major unresolved issues and their social expectations as women had not significantly transformed, in spite of their increased employment opportunities. Women artists still remained confined within their own social fetters. Therefore, the 90s Trend, in a way, presented a greater challenge to them by probing them to take risks, engage in critique, and encouraging them to explore their own personal experiences as a point of departure in their works. 90s Art equated the personal with the political, thus bringing the role of artists and his/her life into a highly public and debatable domain. Many of the post 1980s women artists came from rural/ regional and lower middle-class backgrounds and were used to a modernist paradigm of art making. In this context, for them, shifting to the art ideology professed by the 90s Art Trend meant confronting social impositions at every level.

I find that women artists generally were confronted by three dilemmas: 1) to break through the socio-cultural restraints that hinder them from taking risks, 2) to overcome their economic dependency on their families as well as their families being dependent on them, and 3) to overcome the conservatism toward women practising art in their own family environment. For example, within the discourse of 90s art, drawing explicit male nudes and making the most personal issues public were among the many approaches that emerged. There were many inhibitions for women artists to engage in these approaches and to exhibit them in public. Therefore, their initial struggle has been on a personal level in order to claim the rights for their self-representation as artists. In the histories of women artists and their liberating attempts elsewhere, particularly in Euro-America, women artists had to direct their struggles at art institutional structures for equal representation and fair acknowledgement of women’s art rather than, as was the case in in Sri Lanka, deal with the issue of their ‘choice’ of becoming an artist and securing their self-expression. Therefore, embracing the 90s Art ideology for women was an uncomfortable and high-risk endeavour.

JNJ: I would say that these days, the opportunities for women artists have increased. For example, art fairs, biennials, triennials, and other art-based projects include almost as many women as male artists. In my view there are opportunities but sometimes artists are in a situation that means they miss these opportunities because of their personal priorities, including spending time with their kids, busy married lives, or taking responsibilities to take care of their loved ones.

For these reasons, they have to postpone or give up on these opportunities. Once they miss an opportunity, it becomes more difficult to maintain the flow of other chances. Nonetheless, I can see a number of women artists, who are still sustaining themselves despite these burdens, and successfully developing their practices.

HS: In my opinion, I prefer to identify as an artist without the need for gender labels. The journey of Sri Lankan women artists from the 1990s to the present highlights the dynamic nature of the art scene in the country. While there was a notable focus on gender-related group shows in the early 2000s, the recent decline in such exhibitions reflects broader changes in artistic practices and thematic explorations.

Many women are studying art and design, pursuing many other creative fields in South Asia, and we are gaining increasing visibility on the global stage. However, women artists continue to play an important role in shaping the narrative of contemporary Sri Lankan art, pushing boundaries, and addressing a wide array of social, political, and cultural issues.

Women artists participate in international exhibitions, biennials, and art fairs, connecting with a broader audience. In Sri Lanka, not only artists but also curators, writers, filmmakers, architects, and gallerists are mostly women. For example, Anoli Perera, Anoma Rajakaruna, Sharmini Pereira, Saskia Fernando, Natasha Ginwala, and many others.

AP: I feel that there have to be more specific opportunities geared towards women artists to sustain their art practices, particularly in the early stages of their careers. Facilitating connectivity among women through networks, collectives, and collaborative art projects are important ways to increase visibility, support, and exchange for female artists, which can be very valuable. Well-documented archives and museum-quality exhibitions of South Asian female artists will be great for audience development. There has to be more information out there for younger female artists, the general public, and art audiences to be informed of the art and lives of more established female artists. There is a general lack of role models for female artists.

JNJ: I think working together is the solution. I had a chance to take part in a meeting with a curator from the Istanbul Biennial. When she talked about their programmes, there was a particular prioritising of women. They plan all those programmes with a women-oriented schedule, which includes special instructions to support married women, pregnant women, and those who need to look after their children. This helps these artists to work without worry and engage fully. I think it is good to apply this practice in all fields. There must be possibilities for women artists to organise their schedules according to their availability. I would say that if the family members and life partners can also be very supportive, then women artists can overcome these barriers.

AP: There has been an increase in the number of female artists, who are practising professionally during the last 20 years. Since the 90s Trend, unlike any other time, women’s art has seriously managed to intervene in contemporary art by introducing feminist thematics, modes of art practice (emphasising and acknowledging craft and decorative art practices within their art), and usage of material. All these have changed and expanded the way contemporary artists work. The most prevalent subject matter has been the investigation of the ‘self’ and also interrogating personal histories, where art narratives have become very personal.

HS: In the art field, the focus is often on creativity, skill, and expression rather than on the gender of the artist. Over the past 20 years, there have been notable changes in the makeup of practising women artists in Sri Lanka, reflecting broader shifts in societal attitudes, education, and opportunities for women. As I mentioned above, women are actively participating in exhibitions, galleries, and cultural events, showcasing their talent and contributing to the diversity of artistic expression in the country. Access to art education has expanded over the years, more women are training and developing their artistic skills at university and art school.

Women artists in Sri Lanka are exploring diverse artistic practices and mediums, ranging from traditional forms to contemporary, and challenging creativity with new media art forms. Artists are actively engaging in networking and collaboration with peers, both locally and internationally. This enables them to exchange ideas, gain exposure, and build supportive communities within the art world.

AP: It should not be an art category imposing the view that women artists have a certain specificity of expression. Ideally, just the category ‘artist’ should be enough to identify whether they are male or female. But we don’t live in an ideal world where women and men are treated equally by society. Therefore, the term ‘women artists’ is still relevant simply because they are still disadvantaged socially and culturally in the South Asian context. So therefore, it has to remain as an identification category to direct resources to them to rectify the imbalances of access to opportunities.

JNJ: I still wonder, if we look at some jobs like science, mathematics, and other financial sectors or teachers, there are no specific terms for women. Nobody says woman teacher, woman doctor, woman manager, or woman scientist. In art, there is a term for ‘woman artist’ but there is no term for male artist, and sometimes these terms make me so confused. I am identified as a ‘woman artist’ because I am a woman. I would like to be identified as an artist and a woman.

HS: No, I’m not interested in this term, but the material and practice keeps highlighting me as a "women artist".

AP: There is a long way to go for this as I feel in Sri Lanka male artists still dominate the art scene although female artists have increased in recognition.

JNJ: Yes, it is very positive that there are so many ladies in the leading positions in the art world as gallerists, museum directors, curators, and writers, so women artists receive good support from them. Sometimes it gives us a fearless hope to thrive on any platform.

HS: Balancing opportunities in the art field is not just about equality; it’s about identifying human creativity. Salima Hashmi, Anoli Perera, Shahzia Sikander, Hamra Abbas, Tayeba Lipi, Nalini Malani, Dayanita Singh, and many more established women artists in South Asia have made significant strides in overcoming historical disadvantages and achieving recognition in the art world. Their work not only enriches the cultural landscape but also challenges societal norms and addresses critical issues. Thus I feel that opportunities for women artists are shifting not only balancing with male artists.

AP: Like in the case of most women artists from the past, my initial studios were converted bed rooms or small spaces in the houses, where I lived. My first studio was in Santa Barbara, California where I worked from my kitchen table and living room. When some other need of the family was prioritised, I had to find alternative arrangements for my work. I think this is a limitation and an inconvenience that comes with home studios, where your time and space become fluid, blending into the needs and demands of the home. This pattern continued until the early 2000s, when I converted my mother’s annex into my studio. Moving to Delhi in 2011, I had to get a separate studio to work on my solo show for 2013. I was also experimenting with new material, installation, and sculptural work.

I think because of my early experience with home studios I tend to organise my studio to reflect that homely feeling. I also think that my childhood memories of my aunt's sewing rooms have influenced the way I work in the studio. They tend to be more like a dressmaker’s atelier than an artist’s studio. The artist’s studio usually tends to be messier and more cluttered, as artists like to collect stuff. It tends to be full of junk, which is natural as artistic processes do demand such disorder. It’s not that I am a very neat person, but I feel my working with fabric has defined me as such.

It's also not easy to rent spaces for women in general and single women in particular due to the cultural taboos against women living alone. I would think getting a space as a studio for a female artist is even harder. Lots of questions are asked as to the nature of work. For most people, art is still considered a hobby and if you are spending money on a space, it should be for either living with family or for a credible business that brings in money to pay rent. Most times, artists' studios do not qualify for either. Safety issues of the area also impact women artists, whereas men can overlook this and find a studio in any locality. These limitations can really impinge upon establishing a studio for women artists.

JNJ: Since I came to Jaffna in 2010, I have been living in rented accommodation. Hence my studio space is my living space. During my bachelor studies, I didn’t struggle with rent because I was able to introduce myself as a university student. I was living with my friends, so I was able to share the room cost with them. After graduation I decided to stay in Jaffna to improve my practice and develop my knowledge. The local people in Jaffna do not have the knowledge to understand my passion as an artist.

Occupations like teacher, doctor, and accountant are well known professions for a lady. Around 2016, when I said that I was an artist, they asked about my monthly salary and claimed that this job was not good for women. That’s why landlords did not like to give me rooms for a long time and increased my rent higher than normal, because of my huge art materials. Hence I often had to shift my room. I still remember the very old man, who was my first landlord, who would always find ways to scold me; it took me two years to make him understand the lifestyle of an artist. In 2020, I vacated my other studio and travelled to India for an artist residency. When I returned I had no place to stay in Jaffna and I had to live at my home in Vavuniya. It took me more than six months to find a new room for rent. Finally, I found a new space, which was an unused kitchen and now my current studio, where I receive many visitors.

HS: Working with found objects and leftover cut pieces enables me to create art with crafting processes. While doing my daily routine, I can focus on the work freely, so I still do not have a separate studio space. I may face many challenges once I start to do work from a separate studio place but, for now, I’m working from home and the whole house is my studio space. I shift my materials from room to room according to my routine, and my practice allows me to work more flexibly with the materials that I have at hand.

AP: It’s a constant challenge to face but this can also pose a challenge to male artists. Being an artist is not considered a worthwhile profession particularly at the early stages of one’s career. With time, consistent resistance to their critiques, and once recognition as an artist increases from outside, families come to terms with one's role as an artist. For women, pressures to marry and bring up children become an added hindrance. While a large number of female students graduate from the University of Performing and Fine Arts, Colombo, the majority of them end up as art teachers or in other professions, giving up their art careers due to these family pressures.

JNJ: At the beginning, it was so hard for me to make them understand my field. My parents didn’t like the idea of me sustaining myself as an artist. They wondered how I would become strong financially, and as there was no other example of a full-time artist in northern Sri Lanka, I was unable to give them successful models. The journey was hard, and I was unable to take care of my parents in the same way as other kids. I had to spend more time in my studio, hence I could not travel home very often and it made my parents worry.

I did not give up and waited for the good days, always with a fire in my heart. I asked my dad to let me try for five years and I said “I will try and will not cry in front of you if I fail, but I would worry in the future if I do not try.” As I tried, I received good opportunities to exhibit my works and my works were purchased by collections and museums. During the pandemic, my parents saw my daily routine as an artist. They started to understand the value of my time and watched me attend zoom meetings with various people around the world, which convinced them that I have chosen the right path. Now my family have a good understanding about my work, they know about contemporary art and my dad especially knows most of the people who I work with.

HS: I don't have much trouble making them understand. I keep them informed about my projects, share and discuss my work and explain the time and effort that goes into creating art. I get them involved in community art projects or collaboration projects, and mostly, my mother engages with my work. I'm married to an artist and share the same studio space with him, so we help each other and encourage open communication, educating ourselves with the creative process, and developing clear boundaries that help me to be myself.

AP: All artists have the same potential of wielding economic power if their careers take off. The challenge is that women artists have to try harder and face multiple challenges to build up their career, to be noticed, and blossom to reach that level. Women have ‘time’ in short supply as a large part of their time is taken to managing homes and family as society still holds them more responsible for any lapses in their role of wife, mother and caregiver.

JNJ: In my view, today’s female artists are financially rising. There are good platforms to earn money, not only through selling your works, but also, if a woman artist is a strong thinker and speaker, she can take part in different art-based projects and play any role.

In today’s situation in Sri Lanka, every human being should be economically powerful. The everyday expenses are becoming so high to live in Sri Lanka. In this situation as a female artist, I would say being economically strong always provides a positive mindset to grow in this career. Passion is not only always based around money, but we need financial support to grow in any passion to get the tools, travel to increase knowledge, buy journals, pay the rent, etc.

HS: The nature of earning money through art is not the same as traditional forms of employment. In my early stages working as an artist, I faced many questions from society and family, because it was a strange profession rather than working a monthly salary based job. I explained to them how I enjoy making visuals to see myself in my own family and surroundings, and my living in the society of creating art to help them understand how I could maintain my artistic career.

The commercial art market has undergone significant transformations over the years, particularly in the way art is selected and purchased. Architects being the primary selectors of art for clients' walls led to the rise of personal collectors today who view art as an extension of their taste. Contemporary art has democratised the art market.

As a young artist, I'm working with a gallery, which allows me to focus on my creation rather than think about the commercial market, but I always keep updated about it. Setting the right price for artwork is crucial for commercial success. This includes understanding the value of the art and market conditions. Representation by reputable galleries can enhance an artist’s profile and provide access to a broader market. Economic power allows artists to be financially independent and for us pursue the creative vision without compromising commercial pressures.

AP: It is absolutely necessary to build an archive and document one’s work. This goes for both male and female artists as we, artists, tend to become lazy documenters. It is extra important to have an archive of women artists because they tend to be overlooked in art historical discourse. A lot has been written about men and their involvement in art scenes, art movements etc. There need to be role models for younger women artists to give them stimulation, encouragement, and historical context for their work and to do this there have to be historical lineages.

JNJ: Archiving and documenting my work is very important. We may not be aware of its importance today, but in the future it will become our legacy. I have had so many opportunities to publish my works in many archives of museums and art publications. Building a history of women artists in Sri Lanka is very important to me, because it will help the next generation of artists to see strong examples of artists. It will guide them to choose their path and strengthen them to build up their career. In the time of my bachelor’s the books of Da Vinci, Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo helped me to improve my skills and pushed me to practise every day. It is very important to build a history of women artists to support and inspire the next generation of women artists and to show the international audience that this country has a strong history of art by both genders.

HS: The lack of archives leaves a gap in both personal and collective memories. The destruction of the Jaffna Library is one of the biggest losses of Sri Lankan and South Asian archives. As a family, we lost family albums, certificates, land permits, documents, and valuable archives from our grandparents, parents and relatives during the Civil War. Through my practice, I'm trying to document these histories as a learning from my past and deliver them visually. I feel documentation provides a detailed record of the creative process, techniques, and evolution as an artist, serving as a valuable reference for future projects.