The landscape of arts and culture in Sri Lanka is facing a boost after three years of difficulties caused by the pandemic and a political and economic crisis of a scale never seen before. I have been hearing the words “revival”, “exciting”, “courageous”, “thought-provoking”, and even “too much to do, too much to see” from many. Against this backdrop, KALĀ South Asia has been inaugurated as a platform for arts by Saskia Fernando in partnership with the Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund, with the aim of “contributing to the sustainable development of art ecosystems within the Sri Lankan region and wider South Asia.” Fernando begins a noteworthy collaborative effort between two generations and two models of local arts patronage: the Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund established in the mid-1900s and her father’s enterprise Paradise Road The Gallery Café which began in the late 1900s. The first edition of KALĀ consists of an exhibition titled Pivot, Glide, Echo, curated by Maryam Begum with curatorial guidance from Sandhini Poddar, and a series of VIP and public programming which runs from January 29 to February 25, 2024.

The initiative not merely honours Lionel Wendt (1900–1944) and the local and international glory he received during his short lifespan but also provides “a unique window into intergenerational dialogues amongst Sri Lankan modern and contemporary artists, with Wendt serving as a catalyst for these conversations.” Wendt had a multifaceted practice as a musician, photographer, and filmmaker and he played a pivotal role in setting up the first modernist artist collective of Sri Lanka, the 43 Group. In the catalogue of the 21^st anniversary exhibition of the 43 Group, LC Van Geyzel, a close friend, recollects how Wendt “had a remarkable talent for getting groups of this sort together, working on a shoestring without collapsing into the red.” In the same document, Geyzel credits Wendt for discovering George Keyt (1901–1993) and W.J.G. Beling (1907–1992) who went on to have illustrious artistic careers of their own. Wendt was a visionary artist, thinker, writer, and organiser, forming the arts with intellectual rigour during the pre-independence times of Sri Lanka.

In 1950, Wendt’s home Alborado was converted into the Lionel Wendt Centre for the Arts, which has continued to be a second home for many with “honest endeavours in the service of Beauty” for almost 75 years, as per his wishes. The Centre has been a catalyst for change in the cultural scene of the country: the gallery and theatre are used by artists, collectives, schools, universities and theatre aficionados to showcase their work and begin careers that span decades. Many students, including myself, have had their first experiences of visual art and theatre at the Centre, or “the Lionel Wendt”, as it is popularly referred to. The first edition of KALĀ uses the space and its permanent exhibition of Wendt’s photographs as the starting point to build connections between his practice, his peers’ practices, and the many contemporary artists who are inspired by him. In the exhibition cluster titled Temporality, contemporary artist Muhanned Cader’s work Lionel Wendt Remixed (2023) sits accordion-style, hanging from the ceiling, juxtaposed against photographs by Wendt that capture moments of movement from life around him.

Cader belongs to the 1990s generation of Sri Lankan artists who grew up during the three decades of the ethnic conflict and depict voyages of soul and identity searching in their artworks. He collages different imagery from Wendt’s work onto his Moleskine accordion book. Much like previous works that are visual journals of emotive journeys amidst landscapes of rural and war-affected areas of the country, Lionel Wendt Remixed mimics the gestures of water and the bodily at the same time, combining Cader’s established practice with Wendt’s documentations of rural temporalities from colonial Sri Lanka.

In the gallery downstairs, under a cluster titled The Body are works from an ongoing series by Cassie Machado called When Colours Return Home to Light (2023). In these photogram-enlarged silver prints, Machado turns to Wendt, as an artist of the second-generation Sri Lankan diaspora, in the context of a fantasy collaboration with the pioneer in a unique journey that looks back at his practice from a lens of postcolonial thinking.

Machado spoke of her fantasy collaboration with Wendt, “It is my understanding that Wendt’s portraits are about re-imagining, reinvention and rebirth. His work strived to explore and create a new aesthetic of Sri Lankan modernism, encompassing culture, identity, race, and gender––facets of identity that were predetermined under colonial rule. Interestingly, the camera played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape and conditioning of these same identity politics. I think about what images he would make today through the lens of postcolonialism and I got excited about the idea of collaborating with him to create a new body of work to explore these themes, and by doing so, to rediscover and re-evaluate his work and their context.”

One cannot help but wonder about the impact of these juxtapositions of the contemporary with the modernism of Wendt, especially on audiences who are visiting during this time of cultural, touristic “revival” in a country that is still struggling financially. As a new platform for the arts, KALĀ has created distinctive opportunities for artists, arts professionals and arts organisations to come together and thrive. The powerful collaboration between the patronages of KALĀ and the Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund in itself marks a historical moment. The exhibition curation in thematic clusters of Temporality, Rhythm, Redefining Image Making, Evocative Potentials and The Body are true to the “beauty” Wendt envisioned for his former home. The public programming, which includes a series of talks and workshops with the Art South Asia Project (ASAP), is perhaps the “honesty”, with educational, critical, and anecdotal insights from scholars, artists, and writers, such as Dr Edwin Coomasaru (art historian), Shamil Wanigaratne (author and collector), and Rohan de Soysa (chairman of the Sapumal Foundation, a former meeting place of the ‘43 Group where archives and artworks of the group can be accessed). It will be exciting to see the paths KALĀ navigates as the platform grows, creating opportunities in the Sri Lankan art scene in these moments of socio-political and economic crises we are trying to resolve, as a collective of citizens with a rich history of arts and culture.

Pivot Glide Echo opened on January 29, 2024, and will be on view at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre until February 25, 2024.