September 25, 2019

Let’s Build Great Things goes to Lunuganga! 

Our next two workshops were guest series, organized by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust to commemorate the Bawa 100 series - in particular, an exhibition titled ‘The Greedy Forest’ celebrating Laki Senanayake’s work. Our students were the children of the Lunuganga staff, an incredibly creative group of people themselves. It was a chaotic morning, driving to Lunuganga in near flood conditions and wondering if, after all this effort, any students would show up in this unforgiving rain.

Who is Laki Senanayake?

Laki Senanayake is a longstanding Sri Lankan artist and landscape architect - also known to have been a crucial contributor to the famed architecture of Geoffrey Bawa. Laki’s approach to nature and art complemented the environmentalist theme of our 2020 workshops. 

Our first workshop centered on an Exhibition

This was the first time we had incorporated exhibition materials into an art workshop, and I was excited to experiment with this. 

Gallery tour 

We started the workshop by touring the gallery. I knew that it was likely that this was a first exhibition for many of the kids, so we discussed the art through more of an ‘I Spy’ game - it was my hope was this would assist observation and not overwhelm. While walking, I talked about Laki’s depiction of animals, and how they were often camouflaged in his landscape art. The kids pointed at animals, exclaiming ‘Turtle!’ ‘Eagle!’ ‘Wild Boar!’. They were especially enamored by the brass Bakamuna (owl) sculpture at the end of the room. 

In the Art Room

Spirit Animal masks with Paper Maché

After the tour, we went back to the ‘art room’ (a bright, accommodating space originally made for Ena de Silva’s son). We discussed what we saw, and made a list of all the animals that were hidden in the drawings and depicted by sculptures. We talked about the qualities of these animals (courageous, clever, strong, protective) and asked the students to select animals that represent them best: surprisingly many related to the ‘Bakamuna’ or owl. 

We then proceeded to hand out a piece of foil to get ‘face prints’. After cutting out the eyes, we handed out newspaper, water and glue to build a papier-mâché mask. This took awhile because of the many layers of newspaper needed to make the mask sturdy, and to let it dry. 

Then began the fun part! Decorating the masks. We gave very little guidance on this (they clearly knew what to do) and we provided the following:

• Colored paper 

• Pencil, Eraser

• Glue 

• Hay

• Colored Manioc beads 

• Bristol board

• Colored string 

• Scissors 

• Colored wood chips 

Soon we saw animals emerging out of their masks. Several owl’s, several monkey-lions, turtle-fish and so on. As much as we’d have liked for them to wait for the glue to dry, they were excited to have the elastic stapled on and wear their masks. Some creations  dismantled in the process, but here’s a precious moment captured here: 

A special thank you to the Bawa Trust - To Thilini for the workshop photographs and Shanika for the painstaking organization!