Sri Lankan places and people
Jayanthi LIYANAGE
The rustic allure of Abraham Ling's black and white photography is
hard to resist. "These are of museum quality," explains Ling. "They will
last 200 years if they are taken care of."
Going solo for the first time, and scheduled to exhibit under the
title "Photography is a slice of life" at the Harold Pieris Gallery of
the Lionel Wendt on Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st from 9 am to 7
pm, Ling's work calls to mind forgotten wisps of Wendt's photography of
yore.
A Malaysian by birth and married to a Sri Lankan, the exhibition is
the result of Ling's ten years search of Sri Lankan people and places
which is to be found in unexpected nooks and corners of the country but
which construes to be the backbone of local native life. His
father-in-law is also an artist who will have his debut exhibition at
the same arena during the following weekend.
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An exhibit |
"All the pictures are captured in natural light," says Ling, hinting
at the haunting quality of his photographs. Among the images his lens
discovered, there is a mahout, the Kataragama Temple, jack fruit and
coconut husk removers. His favourite is pluckers.
Ling studied photography and graphic design at Charles Sturt
University of New South Wales, Australia and has a Bachelor's Degree in
Arts. His first display of work was in October 1993 at the Charles Sturt
University Visual Art Exhibition at Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery,
New South Wales, Australia.
His next stop was once again the University exhibition at H.R. Gallop
Gallery, Wagga Wagga in March 1994. Later, in August of the same year,
he participated in a group photo exhibition at Town and Country Real
Estate in the same environs. His last show was at the Summer Photo Salon
of the Contemporary Centre for Photography in Melbourne in January 1995.
In the interim period until now, Ling travelled widely and captured
the essence of life in many countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and
China and plans to display these cameos in his future exhibitions. |
