Rupaneethan Pakkiyarajah is a visual artist who experiments with natural and discovered items to skillfully create symbolic forms involving the theatre and ferocity of aggression, community battles and issues of a minority as his art. Rupaneethan specializes in sculpture though he draws portraits, objects, and landscapes as well. He appreciates the ability to turn his visions into three dimensional objects. His idea to use rubber materials came to him through ‘sever mental and physical ragging/hazing’ he said in his ARTRA article ‘Landscapes of Catharsis’, (Visual Arts/Painting sec., July 2021). The rubber and the other ‘found’ materials he used were indeed a release for the inner struggles and well repressed emotion of the artists. Domination and boundaries, negative and positive, masculine and feminine, room to breathe and crammed into tight spaces are all factors Rupaneethan explores with his sculpting and drawing.

Though currently, Rupaneethan resides in Moscow, Russia, finishing his Masters in Fine Arts, he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Design at the University of Jaffna, in 2016. Then carried on to do a residential art exchange program in Bangladesh. He was born in Batticaloa in 1991 and taught sculpture and drawing at the Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the Eastern University in Sri Lanka. Before he departed to Russia last year, Rupaneethan worked from a studio in Batticaloa, exploring the malleability of rubber and the hardness of shells. This was in reference to skin and rock, the contradictions between memories and societal individuality. The artist explores the dualities between the extremes of black and white, soft and hard, war and peace.

Rupaneethan creates using personal experiences of displacement, violence and conflict within the surrounding natural beauty of Sri Lanka. They are expressed as stitches and voids in the landscape after battle. The artist plays with the intertwining of manmade structures of housing and sacred temples with the ecological environment and the varied nature of the island. Rupaneethan mirrors the common vulnerability and the impact of greed as well as the lack of spirituality and the immense faith and trust given to crumbling chains of command on our planet. Speaking to us, the artist shares that he creates his works to offer a place of solace where the viewer can imagine and even identify with the elements in his artwork.

Comparing and contrasting forms the joys and despondencies expressed in Rupaneethan’s art. Constantly, one is pushed and pulled between the serene beauty and the inexpressible violence that is obvious in each piece. The torture and devastation of the land and the times he himself has experienced is juxtaposed with the celebration and stunning nature of Sri Lanka. Rupaneethan feels that the totality of the human being expressed inwardly and outwardly, only, gives a true account of the person. He defies the ideas of traditional painting like up and down, which way is front and which is back, what is the inside and what is the outside. However, the artist enjoys epitomizing traditional forms and obvious characters to express his art too.

Rupaneethan enjoys all and every kind of material, whether it be pencil and ink or rubber and plastic, this artist finds use in all materials. He relishes experimenting with various subjects. It is owing to these trials that he can pursue the use of unbalanced, affecting methods to connect to the internal reality of a topic. By recognizing the interrelationships between all, Rupaneethan manages to relate to his viewers the manner in which nature shapes social reality. The artist explores the violence that our inner nature as well as the nature that surrounds us releases outward and internally.  He desires a method to dismantle the powers that be and finds his relief through his many expressions of art.

He tells us that his new work is inaccessible to the public at the moment, yet he has shared a few of his watercolor, pencil and ink drawings as well as a mixed media painting with us. Very apparent in his new works is the struggle that initially motivated him to paint. The duality of splendor and brutality is prevalent in his new works. However, there is a more refined look and statement in the works themselves.  

One can specifically see the growth and expanding knowledge of the artis in ‘Motherland’, (plastic and mixed media, 20 inches X 10 inches). At first one notices a glorious bright blue across from a brilliant pink and a deep black and think how lovely they are near each other. Then one realizes what a horrifying picture one is actually looking at. Rupaneethan shows us the duality of what one is attracted to as opposed to the subliminal horror of the subject at hand. This piece is profoundly shocking, yet its beauty is undeniable.

As stated above, Rupaneethan Pakkiyarajah was born in Batticaloa, in 1991. Batticaloa is one of the worst effected areas of the conflict that raged on in Sri Lanka during that time. Eventually, he managed to complete his Bachelors Degree at the University of Jaffna and went to Bangladesh for a Residential Art Exchange Program. Rupaneethan held a solo exhibition, ‘A Search for Connectivity’ at The Paradise Road Gallery Cafe, Colombo, in 2021. The artist has also been involved in numerous group exhibitions including ‘An Exhibition of Sri Lankan Contemporary Art in Aid of The Sunera Foundation’. He relocated to Moscow in 2022 where he is currently in the process of completing his Masters in Fine Art and Sculpture. He mentions that his main inspiration was his elder brother who taught at a school in Batticaloa.