Taprobane Collection

Bandu Manamperi (1957)

“I don’t think I am criticizing society, only observing it. I am observing how the mechanisms of the market economy are transforming age-old cultural concepts into easily saleable commodities. The Buddha is one such concept that is transformed by the market, the politics of power and capital, and at the end is deprived of style and identity.” – Bandu Manamperi

 

Having gained his initial art education from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Kelaniya, Bandu Manamperi is now a celebrated contemporary artist in Sri Lanka. He is a core member of the Theertha Artists’ Collective, an organization and platform that is designed to support and create awareness about the Sri Lankan art industry. Manamperi has exhibited his works in many group and solo exhibitions since 1999, with international recognition from the UK, USA, Sweden, India, Bangladesh and Austria. He is currently based in Bandaragama, Sri Lanka. 

 

Political and larger themes depicted in his work are memory, history, identity as well as the processes of commercialization and consumerism as recent issues inciting conversation globally and locally. His first solo exhibition Numbed was held in 2009, and received acclaim for the works’ play on the motifs of the body and skin in an ideologically complex world. Prasanna Ranabahu referred to the exhibition as a collection in which Manamperi used “his body as well as textured surfaces and works toward a singular objective” of spreading awareness that “social phenomena have succumbed to the common denominator, the total state sponsored ideological discourse.” 

Manamperi is experienced in a range of artistry not limited to visual art including sculpture, drawing, painting and installation art. He is also one of the first artists in Sri Lanka to experiment with performance art as a mode of artistic expression. One of his earliest works, “The Maze” done in collaboration with fellow artist G.R. Constantine, reflected on the civil war, and the manner in which a majority of Sri Lankans were desensitized towards the atrocities happening in the north, which they were merely watching from far away in their ‘safe pavilions’. Sasanka Perera claimed that, ““The Maze” actively combined a very visible installation and a staged performance by the two artists. It was exhibited at a time when the issues it beacons us to ponder over have become central issues in our society while the kind of amnesia that it attempts to critique are also clearly at work.”

In recent years, with the Theertha Performance Platform,Manamperi has developed several performance art work that express his politics about instances of consumerism and capitalism which happen in the day-to-day, unnoticed by the average person complicit in the rat race psyche. In 2017, for the exhibition Portraits of Intervention held at the Aicon Gallery in New York, Manamperi presented a performance titled “Highly Explosive” documented in video form. The performance is noted for his clever use of his own body as a medium of expression as he walks around Colombo covered in Chinese firecrackers, engaging with the vulnerability of human existence when confronted with intense forces of violence. His performance “Dead Fish” (2016), which was included in the Theertha Performance Platform was controversial due to his approach towards death, with Manamperi walking along the streets with a dead fish, demonstrating the manner in which persons are often dead while being alive, subject to violence and torture. Referring to the performance, he said that it “shows humanity, certification, and death, all in one. It is the dead fish, that dies. It is the dead fish, that is tortured. First you embrace it with love and then you destroy.” For several years now, Manamperi has been experimenting with his signature piece “The Barrel Man”, which consists of a man holding an empty barrel, conveying different themes about surrounding human existence. At the re-opening of the Jaffna Library in 2004 he performed a version of the piece, walking into the library covered in bloody bandages carrying an empty barrel on his shoulders, signifying the futility of the civil war and the physical and emotional toll it had taken on the Sri Lankan community. In 2017, for the Portraits of Intervention exhibition he performed the version “Golden Barrel Man” – painting himself in the same color of gold as the barrels used by the Sri Lankan army to barricade government property and demarcate territories in Colombo and Jaffna from being approached and attacked during the civil war. 

Manamperi’s work can be described as experimental creations that attempt to visually portray external social, cultural and political events that affect human existence. He is also known for evoking the political through the personal with work that focus on his own experience of the transformation of his body.

Name of ExhibitionYearPlace
“The Smell”: The 4th edition of Theertha Performance Platform 20222022Theertha Red Dot Gallery, Sri Lanka.
“The Black History”: Internation Print Exhibition2022Hosted by Printmaking Gallery
Iran-India 2020, “Performance Art Project; Asia”, Rah art residence2020In partnership with hexxy duxxy box, Via Zoom App.
‘A Theertha interim show.’2020Theertha Red Dot Gallery, Borella, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
‘OBLAK Performances, Objects & Vulnerability2020Online (Via Zoom App) Performed at Borella Junction.
‘Texting Being’, Theertha performance platform-20192019Theertha, Borella, Sri Lanka.
‘A cross section’, group art exhibition of Sri Lankan artists2019Jaleh Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2019
Contemporary Sri Lankan Art: A Cross-Section2018The Iranian Cultural Centre, Colombo
ART CONNECT, Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) 20172017Colombo, Sri Lanka
‘Portraits of Intervention: Contemporary Art from Sri Lanka’2017Aicon Gallery, New York
“Life and Time-The Changing Landscape”2017Chander Haat at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, India
Theertha Performance Platform2017Theertha Red Dot Gallery, Borella, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
“Washing Man” Performance2016OPEN 6, Open Studio Residency, The Heritage Hotel: Art Spaces, Goa, India
“Iron Man” Performance2016India Art Fair, New Delhi, India
“Dead Fish” Performance20151st Theertha Performance Platform, Sri Lanka
‘Me and My Image’ Performance with Godwin Constantine, Curated by Anna Wagner2014‘ Transforming Bodies’ Colombo Dance Platform 2014
Serendipity Revealed: an exhibition of contemporary Sri Lankan art2014Brunei Gallery, SOAS , London, United Kingdom
‘Beware Wet Ink’ Digital Art Exhibition2014Lionel Wendt Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dhaka Art Summit2014Dhaka, Bangladesh
Making History’ Colombo Art Biennale2014Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Golden Barrel Man” (2nd performance), WAR & PEACE – Visual Narratives from contemporary Sri Lanka2013Harold Pieris Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Becoming, 2nd Colombo Art Bienalle2012Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Crushing Eggs” Performance and participation at Live Art 20112011Bangaluru Artists Residency, Bangaluru, India
Sethu Residency 2 Shanthi Road @ Theertha 20112011Theertha Red Dot Gallery, Colombo Sri Lanka
Beyond Pressure performance art festival2011Myanmar
(De)-inscribed Memories: Pradeep Chandrasiri and Bandu Manamperi2011Hempel Galleries, Colombo Sri Lanka
Theertha @ 1 Shanthi Road2011Bangalore, India
Sethu Residency 1 Shanthi Road @ Theertha 20102010Theertha Red Dot Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Imagining Pease, Ist Colombo Art Bienalle2009Colombo, Sri Lanka
Numbed2009Red Dot Gallery, Pitakotte, Sri Lanka
Theertha- Works on Paper2009National Art Gallery, Maldive
“PostcART”2008Sudu Gallery, Galle, Sri Lanka
International Artists Residency Exhibition2008Red Dot Gallery, Pitakotte, Sri Lanka
Artful Resistance2008Museum of Anthropology, Vienna, Austria
“Buy 1 Get 1 Free”, HAT2 Program2007Plymouth College of Art and Design Gallery, UK
“The Maze”, Collaborative Art Project2006Lionel Wendt Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Contemporary Sri Lankan Art”2005Museum of far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, Sweden
“Urban and the Individual”2004Fenominal Art Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Aham Puram” by Theerha International Artists’ Collective2004Public Library, Jaffna, Sri Lanka
“Exhibition of paintings and sculpture”2004Gallery 71, Galle fort, Galle, Sri Lanka
“2nd Theertha Intentional Artists workshop” Exhibition2003Lunuganga Gardens, Baruwala,Sri Lanka
“Chartered Theft”2003VAFA Gallery, Ethul Kotte, Sri Lanka
“Crafty Thoughts”2002University of Liverpool, Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
1st Theertha International Artists ‘Workshop’2001Gallery 706, Colombo, Sri Lanka
4th Art Link International Artists ‘Workshop’2000Gallery 706, Colombo, Sri Lanka
“An Art Exhibition for peace and Reconciliation”2000Gallery 706, Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Made in IAS”2000Gallery 706, Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Artist for Peace” – Flag Exhibition2000Selected Public Places, Sri Lanka
“New Directions”1998Mount Castle, Gallery Colombo, Sri Lanka

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YearInstituteQualification
2013Certificate Course in Conservation of Cultural Property (murals & paintings)
2004Post Graduate Institute of Archeology, University of Kelaniya. Sri Lanka.M. A. in Archeology
2002Post Graduate Institute of Archeology, University of Kelaniya. Sri LankaPost Graduate Diploma in Archeology (Merit)
2000Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.Bachelor of Fine Arts. BFA (Sculpture)
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