Ismeth Raheem in addition to being an accomplished Architect, Artist and Art Historian, has written a canon of essays and critiques published across newspapers, catalogues, journals and significant publications within a wide range of disciplines from the history of Sri Lanka through art, architecture, archaeology and photography to research publications on natural history. In the research process behind ARTRA Magazine’s latest edition Art & Design of Ismeth Raheem Edition 67, we conversed with Mirak Raheem, Researcher, Executive Director of the Collective and Historical Dialogue of Memory and son of Architect & Artist Ismeth Raheem, as he explores the significance of his father’s canon of writing in facilitating a publicly accessible dialogue regarding Sri Lanka’s historical art culture, delving into the crucial first-hand data the artist’s works represent against the landscape of post-Independent Sri Lanka’s revolving art scene and its personalities such as Barbara Sansoni, Laki Senanayake and Ena de Silva among others.

Q | What do you think is the significance of Ismeth’s writings (on art, artists and their practice through the decades) and the historical dialogue it creates and facilitates?

A | He uses multiple mediums to express himself, but his most regular writing is through newspapers. He has also been involved in book projects that cover a range of subjects. The series of articles he has authored serves as a tool for engaging a wider public. These writings try to highlight forgotten or hidden aspects of our history and the contribution of particular individuals and initiatives involved in that history. I think there’s been something very useful, in how he has created greater public interest in our past and has highlighted different ways of looking at it, which has been an important contribution. In particular, his work on the history of photography in Sri Lanka has shown how the island had been a centre for photography and had been a stopping point for a number of prominent photographers who had passed through the country. In that way, his writings highlight both what is happening locally but also shows how much Sri Lanka has been absorbing from outside and the conversation that comes out of that. 

Q | What are some of the overarching themes and motifs you find prominent across the works of Ismeth ranging from batiks, etchings, paintings etc?

A | A central motif, I think, is how his other interests like bird watching or archaeology filter their way into his artwork. It’s almost a constant conversation of his evolving interests. His art also reflects the people who have influenced him– like Laki Senanayake, particularly because they started out publically presenting their artwork as schoolboys. Other artists like Donald Friend of course impacted both Laki and my father in terms of the form and materials they use. You can definitely see that in his larger works on the forts, where it’s inspired on one hand by his absolute fascination with colonial forts in Sri Lanka, and on the other, by the way it’s depicted in the work of Donald Friend. 

Q | From your perspective, what is the importance of the first-hand data that Ismeth has of art and architectural personalities that have shaped the art and creative landscape in Sri Lanka, and how best do you think they should be archived for generations to come?

A | If we’re looking at architects and artists of the post-Independence period, my dad worked with, knew or was friends with some of them. Therefore he brings a very particular perspective that is not just about the anecdotal, but also about the processes and influences behind some of these individuals. In general, we should try to move away from an approach of looking at leading individuals as just geniuses, and therefore look at the environment in which they had grown up and moulded them or different influences that impacted various aspects of their craft. And similarly ignoring the various individuals that they worked and collaborated with, particularly in fields like architecture which is much more collective and collaborative by nature. For example, it is hard to tell a story about Ena de Silva without speaking of the core women who worked in her collective. In effect, her craftspeople alongside the various other designers and artists like Laki Senanayake and Anil Jayasuriya who all influenced her work. My dad also worked with Ena in her efforts at designing and dyeing, so it is a useful source to understand some of her early efforts in batik and how she tried to market it, which may also give us some insight into how she developed her craft over time. This is something he has written about. But there is a larger challenge we face in Sri Lanka of ensuring documentation, developing practices of record keeping and archiving, and developing oral history practices. 

In terms of primary artifacts, my mother has collected quite a bit of Ena de Silva’s embroidery over the years. Whenever the Matale Heritages wanted to do an exhibition on Ena, my mother would share some of her collection with them. So besides my father, my mother has also been collecting valuable material. Of course, at the time the collection grew because they were beautiful pieces, but looking at them now it clearly shows the shifts in Ena’s own style and approach.  Between them, I think they can offer useful bits of the puzzle, through the artefacts, experiences and memories they carry, to help us better understands some of the leading artists and architects of our time.

Q | In his lifetime, Ismeth Raheem has contributed a vast degree of writing and research covering Sri Lankan colonial and natural history, heritage and culture. In your opinion, what's the significance of one person approaching a wide array of subjects, and how does it enhance the quality of content? 

A | He is a bit of a Renaissance character. He has a really wide interest, and even in regard to his general reading, it ranges from colonial era exploration to science journals to sports to book reviews– he has an endless thirst for knowledge. In his art you can definitely see it reflected, he obviously has a passion for ornithology and was also the President of the Sri Lanka Bird Club. He takes on the challenge of capturing a bird in all its complexities, trying to be anatomically accurate to its features in his works. As the colour of the feathers of birds reflect differently in sunlight and shade, it is an arduous process to capture its colour, but I believe he captures it impeccably in a realistic style as opposed to an abstract one. I feel he chooses realism over the abstract as a technique partly due to his preferences of the type of natural history books he enjoys. However, his art covers a whole range of archaeological and architectural pieces which tend to be a bit more abstract in presentation. For instance, he’ll choose a portion of a statue to paint and then layer it with either abstract symbols or the views behind it. He does that, I think, because he tends to be fascinated by the design of particular aspects and the manner through which they come together which I believe, reflects the relationship between what he reads, views and paints.

He’s quite disciplined about his art. On most days, he’ll make a sketch of some kind. Usually when we travel, he’d go to a museum and start sketching. Over the next few days, he’ll do a pencil sketch, he’ll ink it in and then paint over it. Sometimes the same piece he might return to many, many years later and perhaps still feel like it has to be further developed. Sometimes it becomes a constant work in progress and we have to make him stop! He’s also interested in different mediums so he’s not only a black-and-white artist or just paints, he has his own repertoire of different metal work, woodcuts, pen and inks, pencil sketches and more, because he’s constantly intrigued by different mediums. 

Q | How would you contextualize the works of Ismeth’s with relation to those of Barbara, Laki and Ena, with whom he worked closely during the Bawa projects?

A | I think these individuals definitely influenced in different way. In terms of his architecture, both Geoffrey Bawa and Ulrik Plesner were heavy influences on his approach to space, and his principles to dealing with natural light. Ulrik Plesner facilitated my dad and a couple of other Sri Lankan architects to be able to study in Denmark, and that exposure also was key to his development as an architect and also later as an artist. Geoffrey Bawa would ask those that worked with him, like my dad and Laki to do various art pieces for his projects. There was an environment that challenged them to develop pieces that would match the particular space of a project. 

Barbara, Laki and Ena formed a concentric circle of people that he worked with and was influenced by. He had the opportunity to develop a personal friendship with Ena, and so did my mother. With Ena there was this mutual curiosity and they would feed each other’s interests as it were, because Ena also had an avid interest in botany and natural history. They were a group of people with mutual interests in art and life, and impacted and encouraged each other, even though they were not directly contributing to each other’s works at that particular point in time. My dad did do an exhibition of Ena’s artwork when he was in Copenhagen, which was one of her first international exhibitions even though she couldn’t make it herself. With Barbara, they worked together to measure older colonial era buildings as well. Ultimately, this group of artists was a community that supported each other holistically.

Mirak Raheem is a researcher and activist working on issues of human rights and transitional justice, with a specific interest in the search for the disappeared. He currently works freelance and is involved in developing awareness-raising material on mass grave investigations. Most recently he served as the founding Executive Director of the Collective for Historical Dialogue and Memory, a specialized institution working to interrogate, document and preserve forgotten and neglected aspects of Sri Lanka’s complex past. Previously, he was a commissioner of the Office on Missing Persons, an independent state body mandated to address the issue of disappearances (2018-2021). He has authored publications on internal displacement, human rights, transitional justice and Sri Lankan traditional dance. He obtained his Undergraduate Degree in International Relations and History from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (UK), and a Master’s Degree in Peace Studies from Notre Dame University (USA).