National Trust lecture: “Exploring a district: Discovering a country”
The walk through the Harold Peiris Gallery was heady. It felt as if the photos on the walls were bursting to break out of their frames. They challenged all norms and traditional conceptions of gender; and they stimulated, thrilled and exhilarated.
Titled Embody: the Gender Issue, the exhibition featured 13 photographers; or more properly, artists. It was the first in a line-up of events for the 2015 Colombo Pride to be held throughout July. The exhibition was not strictly LGBTQ, but transgenderism got the lion’s share of attention.
The photographic depictions of the Aravanis and the Hijras of India were the most interesting. Photographer Tejal Shah’s series of photos titled Hijra Fantasies were Technicolor, dream-like, stylised and beautiful. One shows a hijra poised as Yashoda, pointing out a moon in a blue sky to young Krishna. Another depicts a hijra dancing with a handsome man in all the gaudy splendour of a Hindi film. A highly erotic image of a hijra with an all but nude young man follows. The photographer has managed to capture the longings of this so-called “Third Sex”- longings all the more powerful because forbidden.
Then there were the everyday, or real-life, Hijras and Arvanis. Dressed in sarees but the stamp of masculinity still obvious on their faces, they seem happy to be of a gender of their own.
Not that the real women were neglected: Aishwarya Arumbakkam celebrates them in her work which places photos of ‘item girls’, glamorous beauties of Bollywood, alongside photos of ordinary women dressed to resemble them. She has managed to capture the difference between the women on stage against the imper- fection of day-to-day women. Some of these latter have bloated midriffs; others are plump and little; yet all are more authentic when compared with the film stars.
Nick Oza’s series of photos document how Jamie Roberts changed from man to woman. It shows the arduous, gruelling journey, of surgery and pain, in between the “Before” and “After” photos of transwomen, which often hide the hard reality.
Indu Antony’s photos were of drag kings: women parading their inner masculinity dressed as pastors, policemen, bandits, Superman, and Michael Jackson. Not being transgendered but merely flirting with masculinity, these depictions verged on the comic.
Sachini Perera and Natalie Soysa, two Sri Lankan photographers, used projects of newspaper clippings on the nude bodies of women to show how women in Sri Lanka “strive to find a balance between archaic societal norms and their own inherent identities as equal citizens within the country.”
As a final verdict, I would say the exhibition shatters the two-dimensional and the traditional to reveal a thousand shades and a thousand shapes, which rival even the “rainbow”.
The 75th Session of the Monthly Lecture Series of the National Trust - Sri Lanka ‘Exploring a District: Discovering a Country’ by Bradman Weerakoon will be on Thursday, July 30 at the HNB Auditorium, 22nd Floor, HNB Towers, 479 T.B. Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10 at 6.30 p.m.
Exploring the Districts they were posted to and writing about them was a particular contribution of the British colonial administrator. Several manuals and annual reports describing the districts, history and the way of life of its people were the result. These concise micro - studies of an area would capture the living culture of the district or province in an elegant and scholarly way while enriching the country's recorded history. While this desirable practice has all but died out there have been reports, monographs (and novels) by current day administrators as well which have provided material of value to those curious to know more about our country's historical and cultural evolution.
The lecture will attempt to pick out some interesting ideas from these texts and Mr Weerakoon’s personal experiences while exploring the districts during his career as a public servant, which could contribute to the writing or rewriting of contemporary history. In his retirement, a few years ago he explored the Kalutara District and focused largely on the encounter with the colonial since the 15th century which affected the lives of the people of Kalutara in diverse ways – political, economic, social and cultural. Much of Mr Weerakoon’s talk would centre round that experience.
Deshamanya Bradman Weerakoon who was born on October 20, 1930, read Economics at the University of Ceylon, and Sociology at the University of Michigan and was selected to the Ceylon Civil Service in 1954.
After his initial period of ‘cadetship’ in the C.C.S he was chosen to work in the Prime Minister’s Office and served as Secretary to six Prime Ministers – SWRD Bandaranaike, W. Dahanayake, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake and later after some years ‘out station’ and abroad, to R. Premadasa and Ranil Wickremesinghe. In 1983 he was appointed by President J.R. Jayewardene to be CommissionerGeneral of Essential Services to handle the disruption of services after the ethnic riots. He also served Presidents R. Premadasa and D.B. Wijetunga as Senior Advisor on International Affairs.
In the 1970’s he served as Government Agent in the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa and Galle for a period of roughly two years in each area.
Further information on the lecture can be obtained from the Trust Office, tel. 2682730 at the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology, 407, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7.