CHENNAI: In times of catastrophes and crises, art carves out a space to document struggles and create an archive. As Sri Lanka descended into an economic crisis after 2019, citizens took to the streets to demand their rights, simmering with rage. Among them, four artistes — Parilojithan Ramanathan, Nayanahari Abeynayake, Pirainila Krishnarajah, and Riyal Raffai — picked up their lenses to capture the results and reactions.
From frames of five km-long lines of people waiting for petrol in Colombo, to fishermen of Jaffna struggling for necessities, these photos show how lives changed during the upheaval. Months later, these photos adorned the white walls at ‘The People’s Voice is Louder’ exhibition organised by Chennai Photo Biennale (CPB) and Goethe Institut. The poignant frame of people holding a sign ‘Stop Killing Us! Fix the System’ greets visitors. As Varun Gupta, director of CPB, explains, the photos capture the “wild energy and extreme moment of the protest” and graffiti and medium of text play an important role in them.
Political instability, the 2019 bomb blasts, and the lockdown led to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, says Parilojithan. “People had to stand in line to get gas, petrol and everything. Everyone realised we have to change the system and started protesting massively. We had never experienced this in history, it was like everyone coming together to fight for their rights beyond caste, age, and religion,” he says, recalling a woman giving birth in one of these long lines. Even now the precarity continues with the government raising petrol prices by Rs 35 per litre, he adds.
Of movements and messages
In the heart of Sri Lanka, artists, and citizens created an epicentre for protest, Gotagogama, marked with graffiti and stage dramas to educate the masses. Through the 100-plus days of protest, Lojithan mentions he was constantly on the move, from his job as an art teacher at a school to makeshift tents at the site, and back home.
Speaking about people coming together, Parilojithan says, “They started to come onto the streets to fight for their rights. During Ramadan, Muslims and Tamil people started to organise food and broke their fast. (It was the same) even for Tamils, who followed some rituals, during the protest period.”
While Parilojithan and Nayanahari’s black-and-white series captured masked agitators and their slogans (like ‘We don’t want Gota’ and ‘No one is free until we all are’), Riyal’s photos in colour focus on military personnel dispersing protests. Pirainila’s images focus on the northern province and the outcome of the crisis on the already vulnerable 2,300 fisher families. Her viewfinder, filled with empathy, shows a man carrying diesel to a boat, a woman cooking the non-staple egg and vegetables, and photos of Jesus looking over a seated old man.
Risk in documentation
As governments threaten a crackdown on images and arrest journalists, documenting these protests comes with a risk. In a 12-minute video clip, Riyal can be seen attempting to escape from the military as they sprayed tear gas or when a man tried to physically assault him with a pole. “Some days I thought I was going to die,” he says in the video. As Parilojithan explains, a major challenge that remains is displaying these in Sri Lanka.
Director of the Goethe Institut, Katarina Görgen, says the exhibition hopes to create awareness of a crisis happening a few miles away from Tamil Nadu, and was named in a hopeful spirit. “(What was happening) was out of sight and out of mind. We consciously chose not to look at material as dated or archival because you don’t end a crisis of that magnitude within a year.”
She tells CE, “Everyone feels it is over but it is not. By showing this movement and how massive it was, we can contribute to the discussion of our neighbours.” As the crisis rages on, the artistes continue picking up their cameras to document the uncertainties.