Malathie de Silva
Artist’s Bio
Malathie (Mali) de Silva was born to a wealthy Buddhist family in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) soon after independence. She started studying sculpture very young, inspired as a child by gazing at the renaissance reproduction bronzes and marble sculptures collected by her entrepreneur great-grandfather, displayed in his mansion in Colombo.
Mali's tea-planter father was a marxist and independence activist. He encouraged Mali to apply for a scholarship to study sculpture at the historic Charles University, Prague. She arrived in April 1968, just in time time to enjoy the last flowering of the Prague Spring before USSR tanks arrived in August.
Mali studied post-graduate sculpture first at Department of Fine Arts (AVU) and then at the Department of Applied Arts (UMPRUM) . In 1972, she returned to Colombo and built a small studio at the back of her mother's house. The suicide of her father in 1974 when his tea estate was nationalised under a drastic land reform programme affected the family deeply. Mali also met her British partner, Jane Russell, a research student in Ceylon political history at the University of Peradeniya, that same year.
From this point, Mali moved from clay and plaster-work towards carving. At first, she carved in Ceylon hardwoods - teak, satin, mahogany and ebony. Following this, she tried stone carving - first in Ceylon graphite and then kurundagal, the granite/limestone mix that ancient Buddhist stonecarvers used in temple carvings.
In 1982, Mali was invited to Lypiatt Park , the Cotswold home of British sculptor Lynn Chadwick, to work in his bronze foundry. Later, she completed an apprenticeship at Meridian Art Foundry in Peckham while also studying for a Diploma in Art Casting at Poplar College.
Mali returned to Sri Lanka in 1987 where she and Jane Russell set up an art bronze foundry to manufacture and export Buddhist art bronzes and animalier. However, the prolonged and often vicious civil war between Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers made life difficult. Mali's British partner was arrested and deported on political grounds and the foundry went into liquidation.
Mali managed to join her partner in London in 2000. Since then she has had a studio in Bussey Building in Peckham where she carves in stone and wood. Mali also developed her interest in clay modelling and has produced a series of surreal ceramic sculptures, many of them based on her reading of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice Through the Looking Glass".
Mali's style is Buddhist surrealism. This particular approach to art was pioneered by two Sri Lankan painters, LTP Manjusri and Seevali, both now deceased, but Mali's close colleagues and friends from the 1970's to the 1990's. Forms derived from nature - animalier, flowers, fungi, corals - as well as surreal buddhas and buddhist themes characterise this style. It combines a certain humour and jokiness with deep reflection on the nature of incessant change. Mali often colours or stains her stone carvings and paints parts of her wood carvings to bring out the texture of the material as well as enhance meaning of the form.
Mali's feeling for form and her sculptural practice, now that she has reached her seventh decade, is informed by a mature wisdom and highly developed skill. Mali has exhibited in Colombo, notable galleries in London and also at the Usher in Lincoln. Her work is found in collections around the world. Mali continues to teach woodcarving and ceramic modelling at Thomas Calton Adult Education Centre in Peckham.
Artist’s CV
2019
Carvings/mixed media: Peckham Festival
2016-19
AIPS Annual Exhibition: Menier Gallery, Southwark
2016
Exhibition - Stone Carvings: Backroom Gallery, Copeland Park, Peckham
2003
Carvings: Usher Gallery, Lincoln
2002
Carvings: October Gallery, London
1995
Retrospective: Meridien Gallery, Colombo
1988
Private Show: Buddhist Surreal work & Seevali, Colombo
1986
Open Exhibition, Bronzes/Carvings: Garden Gallery, Greenwich
1976
Akruti: Lionel Wendt, Colombo
