Chasing Light

Through invention and discovery, humans have long sought to better understand the formless matter known as ‘light.’ In art history too, light and how to convey it have been a timeless theme. The meaning and the use of light shift periodically. In art, it starts from the painting and then proceeds to the print and photography.

An introductory work of this exhibition is created by Lionel Wendt, a photographer from Colombo, Sri Lanka. After studying law and music in London, Wendt started focusing on photography in the early 1930s and founded Chitorafoto, the photographic studio in Colombo. He also worked hard to establish the ’43 group, the first artist collective in Sri Lanka and played a crucial role in cultivating modern art and photography in Sri Lanka.

In 1839, approximately a hundred year prior to Wendt’s commitment to the photography, daguerreotype, the first commercially successful photographic process, was invented in France and largely advanced the documentation method from painting and print. This new technology that fixes an image using light also evoked much enthusiasm around the world, which subsequently generated various photographic techniques. Wendt was no exception. His insatiable curiosity to pursue the new techniques and sincere attachment to the ordinary landscape of his beloved home country will guide us to understand the other works in the exhibition as well.

This exhibition leads three themes from the title, Chasing Light. The “light of faith” displays symbolic works that touch the theme of religious belief or mythology. The “light over the people and nature” shows the works depicting the lively spirit of the place. The “twinkling light of the city” introduces a series of works that documents the image of the city using the light of firecracker or fire. Chasing the light, how have the Asian artists expressed this formless object, and what have they sought to express through the light? We hope the audience to find the light embedded in individual works.