A member of Theertha International Artists’ Collective, Nishantha Hettiarachchi lives and works in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
“Threewheelers are omnipresent in Sri Lanka. They flock in small groups at junctions, shopping malls, and near markets, patiently waiting for their customers. They inscribe such places with various signs, claiming a certain kind of ownership over such public locations. They can be considered part of a subculture that has gained some form of political strength in the recent past.
Threewheeler drivers have their own ways and manners of expressing their opinions, views, and ideas on everything about society, life, and politics. They decorate their vehicles with various images, sayings, and quotations from different sources such as songs, films, and religious texts. In this work, I have tried to capture the socio-political aspect of the ‘threewheeler culture’ in a somewhat funny manner.”
