Kingsley Gunatillake was Chief Coordinator of Art Education in the Department of Education of the Central Province from 1991 to 1996. At present he is a Lecturer at the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts, Ethul Kotte, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Faculty of Visual Arts of the University of Visual and Performing Arts in Colombo. He currently lives and works in Kandy, Sri Lanka, where he also established his Child Art Studio dedicated to promoting children’s artistic creativity.
“For the visual effort of writing down the year planner, I had to bring colors and material into order. But the year planner could not be arranged according to my will alone. The forms, placement, and ordering of the year planner represent certain socio-political processes superimposed on me. They are the results of victimization due to ethnic violence and terrorism.
But then who creates the year planner? Whoever the creator is, I am compelled to intervene. I am compelled to comprehend this situation and come to terms with time and space; I am compelled to reinterpret the shattered stuff, ruins, and shapes; to reorganize these burned components. I can give these objects sensations and a direction. And also, I am able to oppose the misery that came after the explosions. …
Who will take responsibility of reorganizing time and space in order to recover from this barbarism?”
