By Reason of Savagery and Superstition - # 1 - 4

The title is taken from a quote by British general Waddell, articulated in order to excuse the genocide of Tibetan Buddhists and the pillaging of their temples. The paintings in this series explore the notion of superstition - unknown idiosyncrasies of the protagonists that draw on their knowledge of local flora, their determination of architectural place through movement as well as their use of tools and decoration. By guarding their motivations and anchoring their movements in obscure cultural memories, the paintings negate clear distinctions between notions of civilisation and savagery, these perceptions being rooted in a lack of conformity or understanding.

Autopoiesis #5 - 7

Autopoiesis comes from the Greek “auto” meaning self and “poeisis” referring to creation. Used scientifically to refer to systems capable of producing and maintaining itself. The series of paintings, however, explore the cultural and relational aspect of “self” and “self-creation.” Similarly, culture itself is shaped through people and relational transactions. Detached from absolutisms, the unidentified women feel and explore their world, generate their own myths and indulge in sensualities. By shaping their engagement with the world around them, they assert their agency - intersubjectively.

Two Monsoons

Watercolour on A3 Paper • 2024 - Ongoing

Whether witchy rituals or unknown superstitions, the women extrude tactile knowledge from their environment, through pleasure, pain and/or disgust.

Cool Drinks, Short Eats and the Curve of a Punctuation Mark

Watercolour on A4 Paper • 2023

Unknown women, with their skin pigmented like Hindu goddesses enact absurd transgressions against their environment. Indifferent to tangible results, they explore the boundary between self and the exterior. They abandon social conventions, and traditional / familial relationships to cultural material in lieu of an intimate and sensorial one.

Gathering Cirrus

Ceramics and fabric • 2023

Perera often engages in reshaping/reconstruction of herself with the aim of considering the dissonance between her awareness of her own identity and a wider understanding of self. She examines her body, often through clay, which reappears disjointed and incomplete in her installations. Through this ritual performance, she arrives at a self-awareness that is non-linguistic, “arational” and similar to Bergsonian introspection – embodied.

Stamps on Coarse Skin

Ceramics, rattan, textiles, wood, paper • 2022

Taking a traditionally masculine practice of sculpture on stone/wood - a materially reductive process - and by re-configuring it in the more feminine language of textile manipulation/sewing - a materially additive process - the work explores relationships between objects and people - in movement, in reformulation - romanticized and exotified.

Classic Example

Ceramics • 2021

Classic Example is a series of ceramic t-shirts with prints of objects on display at the British Museum. The cultural objects were chosen from the home country of the business owner where the ceramics were displayed. A story of movement, rupture and fictionalisation of the cultural objects and the migrant bodies from the disconnected combination of intent, location and translation.

Touring Permutations

Mixed Media • Installation views • 2020

Touring Permutations examines the intersection between our prevalent tourist practices and the fictionalization of culture in “exotic” developing countries, leading to the obfuscation of cultural artifacts. She examines her relationship with cultural tourism, particularly evident during her visits to her country of birth (Sri Lanka). She draws on our expectations of “enrichment through travel” and the meaning that cultural objects can have when their original context is removed and displayed in an intercultural setting.

Tailored Breath