VARNA S DHAR speaks to one of Sri Lanka’s best known artistes Laki Senanayake, whose creations are open for display at many important structures in Sri Lanka.
Driving with Sri Lanka’s renowned architect Anjalendran C, in his delightful retrofitted auto rickshaw along the lanes of Colombo to meet with the artist Laki Senanayake just three days before the deadly tsunami struck, was amongst the silver linings of my Sri Lanka trip.
The winding lanes lined with coconut trees, weaving amidst thick and chaotic Colombo traffic, crowded streets bustling with small ‘kadi’s’ or shops, we stopped in front of tall gates, made of gnarled creepers in metal flats, the excited barking of Laki’s several dogs greeted us.
The long driveway lined with philodendrons, crotons, ferns, tall ancient looking trees was for a welcome respite from the bare New Hampshire foliage that winter months and living in Boston had me accustomed to.
The series of currency designs featured here were commissioned by M/s Bradbury Wilkinson of New Malden, London, UK in 1978
There it was...
At the far end of the driveway was a larger than life sculpture by Laki’s created to be installed in one of Anjalendran’s spectacular house. A large beaten metal snake another of Laki’s fascinating creations dangled dangerously from the tree canopies.
The only thing more amazing than Laki’s creations is Laki himself. A warm pleasant person with absolutely no pretences. Several years of working closely with Sri Lanka’s master architect Geoffrey Bawa, and being amongst the best known of Sri Lankan artists has left him relatively unaffected. His fascinating and often imitated renderings can seldom be paralleled. He has been creating marvellous gardens over the past several years.
Passion for birds
He said that his love for birds drew him to noticing the trees that they inhabit. His renderings of the various birds: owls, orioles, lapwings, sunbirds, kites etc are famous in Sri Lanka, in fact his good friend Anjalendran has been gifted several.
Working as a draftsman for Bawa, he found the existing architectural representation dull and often onerous and sought to infuse them with the same qualities that existed in Bawa’s architecture.
He started studying the foliage intently as he continued his study of the birds. Canopies, the branching, textures, the shape of the leaves and the amount that one saw of these in both plan form as well as in sections influenced his creations.
Later, his marvellous rendering that truly attempted capture the spirit of the foliage (as much as it did of the place that harbored them), their characteristics, the textures on the branches, the patterns of the leaf syringes, the punctures and the shadows that they cast, in the sun, the shade that the trees create are all reflected in his many renderings.
Catch it all here
They went on to adorn the walls of Bawa’s buildings like the plaster relief that adorns the Tennakoon house and the walls of Neptune hotel.
The renderings of the palm plants along the walls in Triton Hotel, in Club villa, and in Kandalama. The tiles in Kandalama Hotel bathrooms of a simple slender creeper entwined trunk, all share the Laki touch.
His pastel works too have attempted to capture the spirit of the place in just as much intensity that Bawa’s architectural creations did, largely based on the vegetation and fauna of the Island from the grandeur of the Singharaja rainforests to the scrubby vegetation of the dry zone.
The larger than life stair baluster depicting the war between the Singhalese and the Portuguese in Bawa’s Light house Hotel, the soaring dual sided metal owl at Kandalama. The chandelier in the Sri Lankan Parliament have all been designed and sculptured by Laki.
‘Landscape Architecture lies at the intersection of personal and collective experiences of nature; it addresses the material and historical aspects of landscape even as it explores nature’s more poetic, even mythological, associations’ John Beardsley. (‘On Landscape,’ Harvard Design Magazine No 12 Fall 2000).
Laki’s design is truly inextricable from the site and its context. They reflect distinctively the sights, sounds, smells, and fauna of Sri Lankan landscape.
His work is certainly based on the understanding of the pre-eminence of the landscape to the built, his view of landscape as phenomenal, function just as it is visual and tactile. He draws references from the history of the place as well as the region as clearly evident in his works.
Not just a garden
His own garden Diyababulla in the Dambulla, dry zone region of Sri Lanka is a water garden, referencing closely from the surrounding context of the magnificent Sigiriya rock, a 5th c landscape citadel comprising breathtaking boulder and water gardens also along the lines of Kaludiya Pokuna ‘Black Water Pool’ in Mihintale.
Laki’s Garden at Diyababulla attempts to be more than a visually appealing garden; it is more about the process that occur in nature. The five-acre garden is completely forested. A perennial spring is present on the land along with five lakes, thus justifying the occurrence of water gardens. The house is more like an Ambalama or way side rest house, built on a boulder, roofed but otherwise open all sides to the surrounding forest and all the zoomorphic life that a forest harbours.
The garden Laki created for the Nadesan’s in Colombo a ruined garden perhaps inspired by the famous ancient monastic gardens of Sri Lanka like Ritigala and Arankele monasteries. A place of tranquillity even in the midst of urban chaos.
A book to his credit
Laki is also co-author of the popular book ‘Architecture of an Island, the living heritage of Sri Lanka.
The book is a comprehensive yet delightful source of documentation of some of the most awe-inspiring and historically/architecturally relevant domestic/religious buildings in Sri Lanka. The book is written at a personal level, Barbara and Ronald’s descriptions, interspersed by beautiful drawings, plans, sections, perspectives by Laki and Barbara.
A sense of connectedness exists between the works of Bawa and the drawings of Laki. His drawings and design are informed by his understanding of the history, context, habitats and natural vegetation of Sri Lanka augmented by his deep understanding of Bawa’s architectural vision.
The representational technique of Geoffrey Bawa’s works has gained many admirers but little does the rest of the world know of Laki Senanayake, the artist responsible for it. Laki’s work has the elusive qualities simplicity and beauty, constantly desired but seldom achieved.
