Having represented Sri Lanka at the World Youth Forum held in Cairo, artist/ sculptor Dananjaya Edirisinghe talks of his passion for hammering and welding all things metal
Pushing his creative boundaries beyond borders both artistically and geographically, 33-yearold artist/sculptor Dananjaya Edirisinghe had the honour of representing Sri Lanka at the World Youth Forum in Cairo, Egypt in December 2019.
First held in November 2017, the World Youth Forum (WYF) is an annual event hosted in Egypt, where young people from all over the world are given the platform to meet and engage with influential figures. This global hub is an effort to instigate positive global change, and encourages young changemakers to exchange views and recommend initiatives to policymakers and world leaders. They also get the chance to network with their peers in various fields.
When the WYF invited artists from around the world to participate, Dananjaya was one of thousands to apply and was the first sculptor to represent Sri Lanka at the WYF.
A self-taught artist, Dananjaya began his artistic journey in 2018 creating conceptual works based on figurative sculpture. The inspiration for his pieces come from his own life, as well as stories from his friends.
He was inspired to create sculptures with metal through his father, who owns an iron workshop. “In my childhood I helped my father, and that’s why I’m an expert at hammering and welding things,” Dananjaya tells us. He has worked with a variety of metals, including sheet metal, stainless steel, copper and brass.
Dananjaya considers himself lucky to have been able to proudly fly the Sri Lankan flag as part of the team of 45 sculptors creating works for the WYF. He was particularly grateful to have experienced so many different cultures, shared different foods and exchanged different artistic techniques with his fellow delegates.
The 45 sculptors were invited to create sculptures based on the