Shehan Madawela; Rice

Part of the artist's 'Rice Series'

There is an underlying eroticism in the works of the Sri Lankan artist Shehan Madawela, who hails from a Buddhist/Anglican family. Subconscious lingams (phalluses) arise in the guise of rice seeds. Yonis (pudenda) appear, disguised as bowls for rice or as triangles. Sexual symbolism abounds in Madawela’s most prominent series, the Rice series.

In these works, Madawela ‘talks’ of the overcoming of desire (kāma) born of nutrition or of reproduction. Rice, symbol of Lakshmi, a staple food, the colour and symbol of eternity and continuance, a seed of modified grass, symbolic both of the progenitor of seed (the phallus or lingam) and of man’s seed, vital for the growth of species.

The blue rice bowl is indicative of Rama/Krishna, of protection and the universe, but also becomes seen as the symbol of the receptacle of man’s seed (sperm), as woman, necessary for rebirth. The reverse highlights the need for material, as well as metaphorical, sustenance, the physical need for food. The symbol for which becomes rice, of which India once had over 400,000 varieties in the Vedic period.

As if we were in doubt of the significance of the imagery, Madawela litters his works with human figures, women with transparent, revealing, tops, showing their femininity. Occasionally, strategically placed green leaves are present to shelter a post-Eden modesty. The metaphors are mixed, as is the Indian religious persona. In a country where all the major religions abound, families frequently have mixed religious backgrounds, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and others. This religious fusion shines through in Madawela’s works.

Paintings such as Maha Shiva Ratri (mixed media on canvas), present the more overt Indian religious nature of the Lingam/Yoni duality. In this painting, there is no room for doubt of the Shaivite connection, A prominent lingam protrudes from the folds of a yoni. A (rice) seed rises to an ovum/moon. The background coloured red/brown, deep terracotta, talks not just of the earth but of that passion of procreation, the vital energy necessary for the process.

Madawela explains that 'the rice series started as a result of seeing development take over farmland at an amazing pace in india, and where staples like the precious rice grain (which feeds most of the world), and is a farmers way of life, were exchanged readily for money where  real estate giants made a killing and where a way of life that has been around for centuries, came to an abrupt end....This is a precious grain which needs to be glorified and given its due respect for what it has given to mankind for its sustenance in the past, at the present and in the future.......'