It is difficult to predict when the elephants will come. As darkness falls around Udawalawe National Park, the 52 villages that speckle its borders go on alert. Thin wire fences hum with the threat of electricity. Across the dry zone, farmers climb up into rudimentary treehouses overlooking their paddy fields. They must try … Continue reading
YOU CIRCLE THIS exhibition as you might a sacred site. The layout is such that one artwork leads you to another in a ring. The Red Dot Gallery in Colombo is so small that every work in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ seems close enough to speak to its neighbour. They murmur to each other … Continue reading
We find our toddy tavern down a dirt road in Mannar; a one-room structure with a grimy, shadowy interior and an uninspired beige exterior. The only building for miles, it blends in perfectly with its surroundings—parched paddy fields dotted with wandering cows in shades of brown and white. When the owner, Kumar, hears we are … Continue reading
Chhimi Tenduf-La was anxious about dengue even before the current epidemic in Sri Lanka reached its height this June. With 80,000 cases so far, and hospital wards overflowing, he felt his heart sink when his paediatrician reported they were turning away children simply for a lack of beds. Tenduf-La’s concern is overwhelmingly for his kids. … Continue reading
Today, Prof. Eyal Weizman will deliver the 18th Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust Lecture at BMICH. Its open to all, and you should go. From experience, I can tell you that Weizman’s work is both provocative and significant. We met when the Israeli professor was a speaker at the Falling Walls conference in Berlin. The conference is … Continue reading
You hear El Jude before you see it. Its music fills the streets around Mario de Moya’s cantina in Malambo, an hour outside the Colombian port city of Barranquilla. Mario has just returned from a two-hour stint at a local radio station. A big bull of a man, Mario is a DJ, but could easily … Continue reading
Have you heard the story about Gabriel García Márquez’s 80th birthday party? Gabo was famous by this time, his years as a poverty stricken journalist having given way to his career as Colombia’s most famous novelist. At 55, he had become the first of his countrymen to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. At 80, … Continue reading
