October 23, 2022 was Ena De Silva’s centenary birthday. She is Sri Lanka’s foremost Batik and Embroidery designer famously known to have been the force behind the rebirth of Batik craft in Sri Lanka.
Architects Amila De Mel and Channa Daswatte embarked to showcase Ena and her work to celebrate the occasion. To those who knew of Ena, the showing has been a nostalgic walk down memory lane while for others and future generations, it has been a showcase to ignite inspiration and “ to show that there are Sri Lankan crafts that is world class and something we can all be proud of,” Daswatte said.
The celebration was marked by an exhibition at Barefoot which opened on October 23. Other events around Colombo celebrating the occasion are an exhibition of Ena De Silva’s sarees at Rithihi, a private tour of Architect Anjalendran’s personal collection of Ena’s creations held across the first weekend, and a display of Ena’s household items at the De Saram house which ran through the second weekend of the celebration. The Barefoot and Rithihi Exhibitions close this evening, on November 6.
The opening night of “Ena De Silva and the making of a Sri Lankan Modern” was held on October 22 at Barefoot. It was headlined by a Fashion show which took place in the most Ena- esque way, against a backdrop of dramatic rainfall. To adapt to the spontaneous weather and in the spirit of “the show must go on” models handed umbrellas to one another while they strutted down the wet cobblestone floors at Barefoot, showing off Ena’s designs. One might say, it could not have been planned any better. The rain ensured that all who were present had to take effort and interest to peer over one another’s shoulders, while huddled under cover, to catch a glimpse of Ena’s creations.
 Ena De Silva |
Around the courtyard, Daswatte had an enraptured audience, whilst he compered the event. The show was divided into four sections. The first section displayed traditional silhouettes of the “Osariya” , as Daswatte explains “Ena herself always wore an Osariya (the kandyan way of draping a saree) and from her earliest times, she is always seen to have reinvented it. We found one black and white piece, and another brown and white piece, both of which almost deconstructs the Osariya and makes it quite different and brings it up to date”.
The brown and white piece especially, had a modern twist which was simply because of the way the pattern was laid out, which transformed an essentially traditional garment. “So, we showed the traditional silhouettes that had been transformed by her,” Daswatte said.
The second section showcased modern garments which displayed some of her extraordinary abstract patterns. The third section highlighted how she took simple traditional clothes and transformed them into glamorous clothing which could even pass off for evening wear. Also on display were men’s shirts and Sarongs. “Ena had transformed the traditional drab square sarongs into multihued multicoloured patterned objects that made Peacocks of men,“ Daswatte said.
The final pieces showcased were designs by Mfact. “I think we are hopeful that the Ena De Silva style of batik, particularly the very strong patterns and drawings that were done by her son - Anil Gamini Jayasooriya, Laki Senanayake and herself, which is really the legacy of that group of people, can live on to have a future,” Daswatte said. Marisa Gnanaraj of Mfact was given the honour of using Ena’s Batik panels, from the Bentota Beach Hotel, to be fashioned into a garment, in its entirety. Gnanaraj turned out masterful pieces of art by designing her clothes around the panels creating show stopping garments.
The exhibition which opened to the public, the next morning on Ena’s birthday, covered two things that Ena was most famous for - Batik and Embroidery. Daswatte said that it has been curated into four sections.
Banners and Standards
Ena was referred to as the “Lady of the Banners” on many occasions because of the extraordinary work she has done on a multitude of banners through her career. Therefore, the first section introduces the audience to her works of Flags and Banners.
The exhibition starts off in the ground floor passage of the Barefoot gallery where you are introduced to a 1980 reprint of a 1916 book called the Sinhalese Banners and Standards by E W Perera, which is placed in a vitrine. Ena referred this book extensively to inform herself when designing flags. Hanging above the vitrine is a traditional Flag and next to it is displayed Ena’s version of traditional flags that she had designed. There is a tracing of the Walapane Dissavage Mayura Kodiya used by Ena to design the Flag which is placed above it. Beside it is the Uva Dissave Maha Hansa Kodiya which is also Ena’s version of the flag.
As you swing around to make your way up the wooden staircase, you are accompanied by a banner, Ena’s Lagna Kodiya, which is familiar to most. The large 54-foot tall banner which once had a home in the lobby of the Lanka Oberoi Hotel has been magnificently hung to form the centrepiece of the stairwell, for all to admire, as they make their way up into the loft gallery.
“I think it is perhaps or arguably the largest single batik work, probably in the world. Only one third of the flag is exposed because the other three sections had to be folded away. You can, in fact, see two sides of the flag. It is something well worth seeing. It was made in 1973/74 and was hung in the main lobby of what is now Cinnamon Grand, until 2006.These flags were spectacular pieces of work, particularly when the hotel opened in 1974. We don’t know how long these will last. We are hoping they can be conserved and maybe end up in a museum someday,” Daswatte said.
As you enter the loft exhibit space, you are met with the voices of the ladies from the Aluwihare Heritage Centre through a wonderfully directed movie by Architect Sumedha Kelegama. The video gives every visitor an insight to the Aluwihare Centre, Matale. It is very touching to see how through her work, Ena has not only managed to create beauty in her products but to add beauty and wholesomeness to the lives of the local woman folk. Her endeavours of setting up the Batik factory along with an embroidery unit and eventually a timber workshop and a brass foundry gave livelihood to the village folk living in the nearby areas. Ena’s magnanimity uplifted an entire community ensuring that both men and women of the community had gainful employment.
The video plays on loop with the voices of the women setting the ambience, as you travel through the exhibition space envisioning life in the time of this most vivacious lady, encouraging you to imagine how she conjured to create her magical work.
The second most significant flag is the huge Maha Nuwara Kataragama Devalaya Kodiya which hangs on the Southern wall of the Gallery. “It is an extraordinary work eight-feet high and 30-feet long. It is a modern reproduction of a traditional flag that was found at the Kandy Kataragama temple where the god Karthik is seen resplendent on his peacock in the centre of the flag” Daswatte said, adding that a traditional flag would have been in colours of red on white fabric, however, Ena added her own twist by introducing black, quite extensively, making it a striking flag. In the vitrine below, is placed the original traced Indian ink on oil paper drawing by Anil Gamini Jayasooriya.
Clothing
Some of the earliest items that Ena designed were clothes. She was famously known for the clothes she wore and people would wait to see what Ena De Silva will be wearing at the next public event. Once she started making her extraordinary clothes for others to wear, she began to sell them at a shop called Mariposa.
The first mannequin to greet you, as you enter the exhibit space, is adorned in what might look very much like a modern sun dress. On careful inspection, you will notice it is Ena’s Mariposa skirt bearing patterns inspired by an old Tree of Life design. Daswatte said that it might be from a trade fabric that Ena had on her wall in her house. The jewellery placed around the neck of the mannequin as well was a piece designed by Ena.
“It is simply a single piece that you put over your head and tie around your waist and you have this extraordinary fashionable garment that you can wear. It is abstract, but it is a combination of abstract and traditional design put together,” Daswatte said.
Inspiration is a word thrown often around designers and the question always is, “Where do you get your inspiration from?” For Ena, it seems anything and everything around her provided inspiration. Through her work that›s on display, it is clear she was enthralled by tessellation of patterns and colours.
She saw patterns in everyday items around her. One such example is the Keleni Dress which is placed at the far end of the clothing display section. As elaborated by Daswatte, the dress takes direct inspiration from the patterns made by the potters in Kelaniya. A pot adorned with these patterns has been placed against the backdrop of this dress to help viewers understand how Ena transformed things she saw in daily life.
When moving through the exhibit, one will notice Kokis( Kokis is a deep-fried, crispy Sri Lankan food made from rice flour and coconut milk) moulds on display. These are Ena’s personal Kokis moulds from which she drew inspiration for the Sarong that is placed under the moulds. She recreated the Kokis moulds as prints, to create new patterns.
Wall hangings and ceiling panels
The Pethikada and Viyana section runs along the back wall of the gallery and displays a series of wall hangings, all which show the variety of Ena’s work. Daswatte said, “She did not stick to one type or one style, there’s a whole variety of work and that comes from the different artists who did the drawings for her. “
Also on display is a section of the old Bentota Beach ceiling floating above the centre space to which Daswatte said, “It is an extraordinary piece of work. There are only nine panels that we have managed to fix. The panels are all about nature - trees and plants - and Anil Gamini’s representation of it.”
Daswatte points out two important paintings, the “ Vel Cart” by Anil Gamini and to the right of it a 1963 drawing of Laki Senanyake which give a clear idea of the style of the drawings that the Batiks underwent.
The vitrine in this section showcases a number of periodicals which carry articles about Ena and the work she was doing in Batik. There is a copy of the Times of Ceylon magazine which has on its cover page, the then Ms. Sri Lanka wearing one of Ena’s eye catching creations. Along with this is placed the April 1966 issue of the National Geographic which carried an article about Ena. The page which is placed open, shows a picture of the courtyard in Ena’s house in Colombo, being used as a workspace where these wonderful works of art were first being created.
Embroidery
The first embroidered, large wall hanging on display, is a bed spread of different Lotuses embroidered in each of the squares. Daswatte said that Ena would say that she was inspired by the wonderful Lotuses she found in the temple paintings of Kandyan region. “This bedspread is a representative of her interpretation of the Lotuses,” Daswatte said.
Amongst the embroidery are two magnificent sarees, of which the most spectacular piece is the saree she wore to her daughter’s wedding, which is draped on a mannequin. It represents a mother’s expression of love for her daughter. The main Pallu and the main body of the saree was designed as a wall hanging, Daswatte said. It was made out of drawings that her daughter made when she was about 3 to 5 years old, which Ena saved and then traced to create an extraordinary work of appliqué and embroidery on the saree.
The vitrine in this section is also important, displaying a book that was written by Ethel Coomaraswamy - Old Sinhalese Embroidery (1906). Daswatte said, “Ena told me years ago that she was hugely inspired by this book and by what her mother had started. Lady Lucille Aluwihare had started her little workshop for embroidery for village women to find extra work and between the two, Ena was inspired to start off on embroidery. That vitrine also shows a sampling of all the different stitches that Ena used to train the women at the embroidery workshop, which she then combined to form the extraordinary pieces of embroidery you find in the exhibition.”
Ena as we have come to know had a larger than life and colourful personality. The exhibition has done a wonderful job in capturing the essence of her personality. Daswatte said, “We had such a small space to show so much, it was very difficult to make a choice of what we should show and what we shouldn’t show. But what happened was, we had to put in so much into this small space, I feel the exhibition feels very much like walking into one of her own spaces. Almost like walking into her house where there is a sort of bombarding of the senses with colour, shape and pattern. As you walk into the exhibit, you get a sense of that and that’s very much Ena. She didn’t do anything by halves, everything was over the top and we were trying to capture the over the top-ness while still telling a story and creating something that had a narrative.”
