• Teran Indika and Harshana Kumarasiri on their modern art exhibition ‘Emoji’

Modern art is, by its very definition, modern, and often this means art that interacts with the modern world and uses modern practices, techniques, and technologies. 

Next week (16) will see the launch of ‘Emoji’ – an exhibition by modern artists Harshana Kumarasiri and Teran Indika. Both graduates of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts (UVPA), their works are deeply influenced by structuralism and seek to explore the complexities of modern society through unique artistic mediums.

Their first joint exhibition, ‘Entrance,’ held at the J.D.A. Perera Gallery, used contemporary materials and advertising art to comment on the hyper-consumerism of modern society. This debut showcased their ability to address pressing social issues through their art, setting the stage for future collaborations. 

‘Emoji’ will be the pair’s second joint exhibition and will focus on the role of emojis in contemporary communication, proposing that emojis surpass traditional letters in expressing emotions and reality. Their work aims to highlight the playful yet profound impact of emojis on our daily interactions and emotional expressions.

The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with Teran and Harshana for a chat on ‘Emoji’ and their artistic journeys. 

Following are excerpts:

Tell us about how you became artists

Teran: I come from Galle. My father is a teacher and my mother is a homemaker. I have been painting with watercolours and pastels since I was a child. I’ve also worked a lot with clay. 

I studied at Mahinda College in Galle and always loved my art subjects more than any of the others. My school art teacher was Sarath Weerasinghe. After my A/Levels, I attended the UVPA where I studied ceramic art, sculpture, and painting. My favourite form of art is painting because I can express my desires easily through it.

Harshana: My home is in Tangalle. I come from a family of farmers. I studied sculpture and painting at the UVPA as well. 

My artwork often involves forms and shapes with a 3D effect. My painting is not traditional; it is sculptural painting. I find being a sculptor very gratifying because I get to work with different materials. From 2016 to 2022, I used polythene for my artwork. 

The need for structuralism greatly influences me. I work with abstract forms and combined art. My favourite artist is Robert Rauschenberg. Currently, my work consists mainly of coloured canvases. 

Tell us about your upcoming exhibition ‘Emoji’.

Teran and Harshana: In this new exhibition, our approach focuses on the concept of emojis as a form of reality. An emoji serves as more of a ‘letter’ than a traditional letter. The purpose of this exhibition is to demonstrate that emojis are more tangible than letters. Additionally, emojis embody a sense of playfulness that letters do not convey, offering a new perspective on communication. 

Beyond your mobile phone keyboard, mobile companies have provided emoji banks to help fill the gap in expressing emotions through language. In this sense, emojis complement written letters. 

Our art serves as a language of emotional expression, illustrating that contemporary society is influenced not by protest movements but by the individual subjectivities brought into conversation as well. Thus, emojis represent our personal expression of subjectivity, critiqued within an international framework.

Emojis achieve a greater job of communication than the alphabet itself. The use of communication in language has expanded due to emojis. Although letters cannot fully express human emotions, emojis can. Nowadays, human emotions like happiness, anger, love, etc. can easily be expressed through emojis. 

This made us realise that our emotions are not always inside our inner mind but outside it. Our consciousness is not situated inside but outside. As a result, we can send an unlimited number of emojis without a specific recipient. This affects the recipient of the emoji message as well. These days, even the structuring of our unconscious is influenced by these emojis.

Can you describe your creative processes when preparing for ‘Emoji’? 

Teran: Art has added meaning to the monotony of today’s lifestyle. It affects the monotony of my life and the fragility of human relationships. 

The process of drawing my paintings takes a lot of time, most of my day. A lot of time is spent on dot paintings. At the end of the day, it brings me a great sense of freedom because it is an expression of my soul.

Harshana: Since 2016, I have been engaged in formative studies in painting. Most of my past exhibitions have been done using polythene media. 

I don’t paint colours like a traditional artist; my painting is a construction. Although it is similar to collage art, there is also the construction of three-dimensional shapes. In the new exhibition, the painting has been constructed by switching from a polythene medium to canvas media, with colourful canvas folding and shape building.

Why do you think emojis are important in today’s communication?

Teran and Harshana: The study of language is important in developing ‘emoji’ as a concept. The language we use belongs to the diachronic axis. Even though it has developed for ages, it does not belong to the synchronic axis in which we live. But the ‘letter’ has developed positively. 

Language creates a lack of communication. Therefore, if you practise structural thinking (based on the philosophy of structuralism) in the study of emojis, you can read the difference between language and communication.

The power of the letter is reflected in the complaints of poets and writers who express that language often makes it difficult to convey feelings. Therefore, if emotions are stuck in communication, emojis, created as an alternative, have initiated a new form of language. 

For example, the heart emoji has emerged as an addition to the language of love. This is not a letter but an image, which can be configured as follows: the emoji has created an emotional representational language.

Do you have any new projects you are excited about?

Teran and Harshana: The main purpose of the ‘Emoji’ exhibition is to give a modernist approach to the Sri Lankan art field. Instead of recreating the external reality, we have tried to show the inner antagonisms of subjectivity. We have also tried to distance ourselves from representing the essence of Sri Lankan culture and nature and give primacy to form over content in painting. 

Although some approaches to modern art were tried in the ’90s, they were altogether subordinated by racism and the civil war. In a nation where modernism was defeated by racism, it is impossible to return to the old modernity. Therefore, only a meta modernity can be attempted, and our endeavour at modern art suggests just that without falling back to a lost essence.

Info Box:

‘Emoji’ will be open to the public on 17 and 18 August at the Lionel Wendt Harold Peiris Gallery