Photos courtesy of Layla Gonaduwa
Fallow is a word often associated with inaction or unproductivity. In Layla Gonaduwa’s latest exhibition at Curado Art Gallery, the term fallow undergoes a nuanced reevaluation shedding light on its purpose as a vital process of restoring fertility and avoiding surplus production. This subterranean cycle of renewal, harmonising internal and external elements, mirrors nature’s rejuvenating qualities.
Layla Gonaduwa is a self-taught artist. She describes her discipline as “Doing art on a daily basis. It doesn’t need to be drawing, it could even be reading something about drawing. Just thinking or writing. You need to have a certain type of discipline to wake up every day and dedicate a certain portion of your time.”
Having this discipline from a very early age inspired her to carry on her practice throughout her life. She wasn’t always an artist, mentioning that at a certain point she was working in a bank. During this time she still maintained an artistic discipline back home and by sustaining a creative way of thinking she “lived art in that sense”. She reflects, “I think that kind of spiralled gently into wanting to be a full time artist. I think especially after my kids came about that made more and more sense to me.”
As a child she attended the Cora Abraham art school. She fondly remembers, “It was a beautiful place for children to just go and experiment and see how far you can push material.” She praises the school for giving her a true sense of freedom of expression, which she is grateful for, in her informative years of early learning.
“I was given that freedom to explore it on my own as well. And it’s not to say that they didn’t give you the basics. The base, the platform, is there but they encouraged you to think out of the box and that was really important,” Layla says.
Fallow is a series made up of drypoint prints and sculptures.
Walking through her exhibition, she refers to her etchings. “So the subject matter in all these is a space that has no growth.” She points at overgrown weeds and plants growing wildly. “All these forms are things that just came out of a space that was laid there. They weren’t planted. I found some of these in my garden in Nepal.”
Layla currently lives in Nepal but intends to return to Sri Lanka in 2026.
One of her previous exhibitions was inspired by the aragalaya while she was still living in Nepal. She mentions feeling “kind of being out and looking in and trying to make sense of it.” She realised that while the country needed protest, it was still easy to become complacent. “We always kind of see what is in front of us but we don’t look behind us.”
Her series of painted ceramics Forgot We Were Seeds references an old Mexican proverb “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”, which was quoted by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake when he was elected. Pointing to the sculpture, she explains, “I wanted to use images symbolic of power. This is a lion and an elephant morphed together. It’s a very early symbolic mythical creature in Sri Lanka. I wanted these man made images of power that kind of slowly start breaking up through the crevices.” This mirrored what she saw in the politics of Sri Lanka. “I don’t think that four or five years ago we would have seen this change coming but there are things in motion that we are unaware of – a sort of balancing force.”
Layla explains her creative process. “I just wanted to experiment with paper. Fold it, tear it and kind of make it stretch. First I drew it in pencil and then I started working on the negative space. Then I work on it with the pen and erase the pencil.”
Layla admits that every exhibition she has worked on has contained an ecological element. Fallow has a deeply political meaning for the artist on a personal level; however she stresses that for visitors to the gallery, it doesn’t matter what the point of entry is. She adds, “I think at the end of the day, what we all want is for Sri Lanka to move forward in a good way. So I use the word fallow to show my sentiments. I think people just need to enjoy the work and take their own message to understand it in their own way.”
With ecological nuances and political undertones, the artist’s collection embodies a narrative of organic forces adapting and transforming to nurture new beginnings. Themes of home, migration, ecology and grassroots politics intertwine in these works, reflecting a profound connection to both Nepal’s artistic legacy and the enduring inspiration drawn from Sri Lanka’s journey towards evolution and progress.