Pala Pothupitye’s work takes a historical revisionist approach by re-examining familiar visuals such as
maps and traditional crafts. He problematises Sinhalese ideologies and post-war occupation of land, by
subverting colonial symbolism. Simultaneously, he challenges the notion of the colonial ‘subject’ by
questioning extremisms in vernacular expressions of religiosity, nationalism and militarism. His early
work invokes territoriality and the superiority of a majoritarian cultural identity, symbolised by lions and
upside-down maps, to challenge notions of wartime identity politics and nationalisms. His later works
expand on these historical narratives of power and capital, both colonial and neo-colonial, and global
and local, to focus on two themes: the glorified supremacy of a war hero and landscapes of terror.
Pothupitiye appropriates the familiar outlines of superheroes – parachuting them into captured
territories. Echoing his earlier preoccupation with cartography, these soldiers fade and blend into each
other as symbolic representations of power, capital and vested interest, to confront Sinhalese
neo-colonialism in the aftermath of war. The golden figure of a colonial soldier, often reviled by the
anti-colonial rhetoric of nationalism, is now repurposed as a vehicle of majoritarian imperialism. He
bathes them in gold to reference the literal translation of the Sinhala term for a war hero – ‘rana-viruwa’
(golden hero) – to question the complex ideologies hidden behind their carefully constructed public
image. In this exhibition, his work provokes a new ‘social consciousness’, inviting the viewer to
decolonise their minds and question the possibility of war without cost.