Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s work reflects his long and consistent interrogation of the camouflaged
truths and manufactured lies propagated by the state, breaking through the fantasies that keep its polity
blind. His work, like the enduring impact of conflict, is a long-term documentation of the politics of
governing and the governed. But it is also a proposition to society: To confront the everyday, to move
beyond fatalism, and to ask themselves the questions that they fear to ask, even if doing so raptures a
state of wilful ignorance. In this exhibition, the delicate, stark and decorative lines of black and white ink,
the tools of oppression and power lie in two-dimensional simplicity. Hiding beneath the flowery motifs
and beautiful curves are the barbed wire and thorns that control access and limit spaces of dissent;
religious symbolism bleeds into its destructive alliance with nationalisms; and politicians promise
transformations as they clothe themselves in the voice of the change-hungry masses, who are blindly
locked in a dance of power and powerlessness, yearning and disappointment. In the momentary glitches
of colourful claustrophobia, faintly remembered landscapes of terror emerge, threatening to break the
viewer free from the tamed emotions of the deliberately blinded. Thenuwara’s work in this exhibition
serves as reminders of concepts – truth, justice and accountability – that the subconscious mind knows
all too well. It urges the viewer to engage in a layered reading of ‘normalised’ realities, and to give voice
to what hides beneath.