Rajni Perera

For someone who has never come across your work, how would you describe what you do?

I’m a painter, and I offer a window to somewhere else and sometime else too. I try to project what I see through the act of creation, so that others can see too.

Some of the titles of your series have a connotation with Sanskrit names. Can you tell us a little bit about how you come up with captions for your art?

Yes, in one of my series entitled Yoginis, one of the names of the pieces is “Natarajasana,” which is the name of a yoga pose. The names for yoga poses are originally Sanskrit and I was interested in elevating the element of exotification involved in marketing yoga practices to the West. Amma is not Sanskrit but is used in India and Sri Lanka for the word “mother”, and Chinnamasta is the name for a specific manifestation of the goddess Kali.

It may be hard to detect by men, but your work has an unspoken energy that enhances the power in women. Did you have strong female figures when you were growing up?

I create out of a need for more of those kinds of women. Sadly, I didn’t have a lot of them around while I was growing up. I grew up in a patriarchal, woman-oppressing, post-colonial place that body-shamed, and shade-shamed.

Have you become one of those kinds women who you wish were around when you were growing up?

I have always had it in me to be very strong. Sometimes it takes one to step out of a cage in order to grow to one’s potential.

Is there a subtext to your art, or would you say it’s open-ended?

I like to stay away from art theory as much as possible. I think it cuts people off. It excludes those that don’t have the cultural background to understand art. For example, if I say to an average person, “I hope you feel the power of the yoni as well as the imminent threat of the Vagina Dentata prevalent in this piece”, it could detach them from their own feelings or thoughts about it, as they are unable to relate to those concepts. My work is accessible on many levels – my 3-year old daughter likes it, my 30-year old contemporaries and patrons understand it, and my 60-year old professors in my alma mater do as well. That’s what I want. I don’t want to write page-long statements, I’m uninterested in that.

What is the approach to creativity in your culture in comparison to Western culture?

I grew up interculturally, so these worlds you mentioned melt together and I sort of exist in both. Sri Lanka has a deeply embedded colonial past so what they have had for the longest time is essentially a version of Western arts culture as propagated by the colonizers.

What I meant to ask was the perception of art in both cultures. Would you say the Western culture is more open and supportive of the arts in general or is your culture also appreciative of artistic output?

The East’s idea of itself is peppered with, and in some cases originates from the West’s idea of the East, and the East consumes this Westernized view of itself. Meanwhile the Western world is filling up with immigrants who have new perspectives in terms of identity and look at this collision of cultures critically. So I would say, to answer your question, that I grew up between two cultures that appreciate the arts very differently – Sri Lanka is a country of artisanal heritage with deep roots in craftsmanship, it’s own sound, dance and ideas. And although the arts in Sri Lanka was traditionally meant for everyone to enjoy, the influence of the caste system and Imperial rule made it affordable only by the rich.

Tell us a little bit about collaborations you’ve been involved in…

I did collaborations with the label NORBLACK NORWHITE and released a line of dye-printed silk clothes called Mango Universe which sells at Selfridges London. I have collaborated with Theesatisfaction for an album cover for their record EarThee. I’ve worked with dimensional traveller Nep Sidhu to produce a graphic for Shabazz Palaces. Currently, I am working with local author Vivek Shraya to release a children’s book, as well as curating the work of Todd Westendorp into Huntclub, an amazing local gallery. Lots going on right now…

A whole lot of contemporary art is confusing to %95 of those who should be engaging in it.

How do you decide upon the colors you use for your work? Do certain colors speak certain emotions to you?

That is not the kind of work I make. I approach my work coldly and calculate things like ratios of this color to that, assessing compositions with an eye for balance. I think I’m influenced by the colors of science fiction and futurism – chrome fades, golds, reds, jewel tones…lots of black on a sterile background.

What would you say is “confusing” or “not understood” about modern art?

A whole lot of contemporary art is confusing to %95 of those who should be engaging in it. Unfortunately, if you haven’t been to art school and taken 8 years of visual culture theory courses, then you probably have no place in most of the trendy Western art galleries. Those are places where curators
curate for other curators and publications. These galleries are not about maximizing the understanding of any body of work or any artist in particular. Contemporary art has become, and is becoming, ineffective as a catalyst for change and more of a stagnant, elitist intellectually masturbatory exercise.

What is an achievement that would make you say “I’ve made it?”

Well, I’d say I’m on my way. I have started showing internationally at the rate of a show per year. I curate all my Toronto shows along with other artists so that those who should be seen ARE seen, whether or not they know the right people. Of course, feeling my hustle pay off a little better would be great, especially here in Toronto.