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KNOWLEDGE BANK > TIME & SPACE > RESIDENCIES > GUYAN PORTER RESIDENCY

Guyan John Porter,

Portraits, Sri Lanka.

Kai-Oi Jay Yung

First published:

a-n Collections September

2008

Writer(s), artists,

photographers and AN: The

Artists Information Company

2008

All rights reserved.

GUYAN PORTER RESIDENCY

Kai-Oi Jay Yung speaks to Guyan Porter about his

residency at Chandrasevana Creation Centre in Sri

Lanka.

Guyan Porter has been making connections throughout the

world... travelling extensively ever since his 1998 residency to

Russia. Travelling itself has become critical to understanding

diverse art contexts and cultural settings, enabling Guyan to

explore unorthodox environments.1

Previously President of

Scottish Artists Union and Network Coordinator for the NAN

Initiative, he is well equipped for wider economical

synchronisation and social altercations accompanying shiftingbetween the local and the global. Collaborating on agenda is...

the way that I work... [investigating] conflicts between internal

and external authorities.2

In December 2006, Guyan began a two-month residency at

Chandrasevana Creation Centre, Hikkaduwa, southern Sri

Lanka, resulting in a collection of photographic portraits of

locals towards a book about his residency. In 2004, a 9.3

undersea Indian Ocean earthquake generated a tsunami

portending towering killer waves that extinguished lives,

livelihoods and homes from Sumatra to Somalia.3

201,901

families in Sri Lanka alone were affected with damaged

housing and endemic displacement. The tsunami capsized

freighters, stripped mountainside of vegetation and tore apart

coral bays sustaining fishing villages, signalling a global

catastrophe urging an unprecedented global response.4

This

response came from organisations springing into action when

in-country mechanisms could not cope. Disasters and

Emergency Committee (DEC) aid agencies were despatched for

effective and swift humanitarian assistance.5

Strategic

fundraising saves lives; DEC raised 390 million, providing

housing, food and medical services.

Following his tsunami experience, (We were with forty friends

caught in... Hikkaduwa. Our children were missing... Over

2,000... died within three kilometres of us.) Neil Butler set up

the charity Hikkaduwa Area Relief Fund (HARF) to supportlocal community as it recovered.

6Within three months, HARF

internationally fundraised 40,000, subsidising local farmers,

mains water for Displaced Persons Camps and the founding of

antenatal clinics. Besides relief aid, Neils UZ art event

background incited him to introduce art into HARFs long term

regeneration projects.7

Guyan was selected for a residency and helped set up

Hikkaduwas Chandrasevana Centre as an arts resource for

residencies, [with] creative ways of adding to the various

communities. His, desire to help in some way... became, a

residency project and... assisting in an advisory capacity where

possible. The host centres offerings and expectations are

customary; encouraging collaboration between art forms...recovering members of the community... activities celebrating

Sri Lankan culture... [of] economic benefit through tourism.

For artists, Chandrasevana facilitates accommodation,

equipment, information to working in Sri Lanka, holding

Guyan John Porter,Portraits, Sri Lanka.

Guyan John Porter,Neil presents first event.

Guyan Porter, Sambadi.

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for whom, in what way did Sri Lanka provide a meaningful

context for Guyans practice? HARF stipulates artists give a

minimum of one day a week working with local communities

and make a piece of work enhanced by being created in Sri

Lanka.12

Does this concretise an organic, intangible process;

curtail creative autonomy and hurry the half baked? We

organised ... installations and processions for the [centre]

opening, half way through my residency. Cultural scales are

balanced too; local artist Prasentha was transported to

Glasgows Merchant City Festival; an exchange barter ofengagement and delivery.

International to local practice is difficult to elucidate; setting

cultural context as defining parameters is not enough. What

factors determine integration, how is this process

communicated? Surely ideas and work developed can only ever

truly be received on site? HARF stipulates, all work... will

always be presented... to the local community.13

Following

lives crossed and context internalised, Guyans residency

portraits were, images of people who live and work there...

combined with interviews.14

For Neil, a rich interaction that

produced some powerful work.15

Its not the first time HARF

has ended by a photography book; in 1994 Ian McMillan,

prompted donations and encouraged tourist return with 5

Images of Sri Lanka.

There must be more value lurking somewhere? Guyans

guarded interview leaves me intent to delve. I would need

total editorial control... the residency I did was complex.

Guyan omits detail, then ...a war not really reported in the

western press... has escalated dramatically.16

On

investigation, the backdrop is, in fact, tsunami tragedy

embroiled in violent civil war. North and East tensions between

Sinhalese majority and LTTE Tamil separatists (Tigers of Tamil

Eelam) equate bloodshed of 100,000 lives over twenty years.

Rehabilitation endeavours are themselves impeded;

overcrowded welfare centres, families unable to return home,

women complaining of sexual harassment.17

Aid agencies

accuse the government of complicity, failing to provide... relief

or work to all the victims.18

Despite official ceasefire, no

peace no war, a climate of impunity reigns, allowing

unchallenged human rights violations.19

Action Against Hunger

found aid workers lying face down and shot at close range20

and only recently Amnesty International urged the UN Human

Rights Council to end government and LTTE abuses.21

Guyans

intimations sharpen focus. It was, impossible to fully

understand the complexity... of tsunami and the war in Sri

Lanka prior to going, no matter... [the] research...

communication and conversations.22

Environmental

degradation, community life disintegration... this desperatesituation is Chandrasevanas real working context. HARF treads

carefully, operating within Sri Lankan Government Policy and

consultation with... UN and British High Commission.

Simultaneously, its businesses programme is a ...more

sensitive area mainly concentrat[ing] on employment of

women.23

How may Guyan communicate contextual circumstance without

jeopardizing HARFs endeavors and practice integrity? It would

have been impossible to address the terror of the tsunami,

although that was something... I thought about a lot.24

Panning out, resolution appears to lie in the suffering of the

locals. That Guyan is interested in facilitating individual and

community interaction with political structures is pertinent.25

Suffering here is endemic; a local imparts, I die each morning

when I wake up.26

Internationl Child Art Foundation (ICAF)s

development of Healing Arts acknowledges the 1.5 million


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survivors needing psychological help beyond humanitarian

relief.27

People are central to HARF; Guyan and Neil talk of

lifelong friendships and Chandrasevanas long-term

psychological and social consequences.28

Dialogue concludes,

need for a... psychological support that... creative projects

could offer... physical rebuilding... was the easy part of a much

more complex process.29

The context was one of giving back

to inhabitants who offered... help in spite of their own grief;

to enable the vulnerable to rebuild health, families, and

communities towards the future.30

Chandrasevana adds

greatly to rejuvenation and healing of the area since, its a

place where [people] can relax... talk about what has

happened. IT equipment replaces failing words; restoring

confidence, ebbing away experiences.31

Exposing people to

new ideas and technology... creative processes... is itself

psychologically positive.32

Consequently, Guyans portraits take on a potent cathartic role.

After investigating a potential arts festival and peace tour, the

most feasible, pertinent, meaningful outlet was, something

more intimate... interviews and portraits seemed like a good

way to work with people... discuss experiences.33

When asked

why only face portraits, his reply communicates a connection

enabling individuals to acknowledge, move on. The face

conceals... reveals. Many people... were left with physical

scars... I was more interested in... how people survive trauma,

mentally and physically... How we transform and adapt.34

The

portraits may be the physical end product, but not the sum of

his experience. Guyans residency is not social working, nor

interchange art for education, though artists are perhaps

social entrepreneurs. Our non-formulaic insights are catalysts

to enrich and transform daily social environment; tapping into

underlying human conscience. The centre supports peace

between... communities of our island... opportunity to

celebrate our own culture and understand the lives... and

beliefs of others.35

Fellow resident Hugh Watt reinforces, the

centre [was]... to do with them.36

The real question is how to measure the tangible

transformational value of art, to what extent it benefits lives

and catalyses the artists development? As paid professionals,

we are answerable to intercultural responsibilities to

substantiate our sectors health. Transposition to new social

environments provides fertile space for renegotiating audience,

environment and process. It can be a hazardous trajectory,

though, when context is political massacre, poverty, and

natural disaster conundrum; how to assimilate and reconfigure

key issues when so removed from a familiar framework? Sri

Lankan artist, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, received death

threats for staging the allegorical drama The Trojan Women. It

is the most powerful contribution... I can make as an artist to

the efforts to end war.37

Guyan recognises arts instrumental role in proliferating

societal awareness. In governmental terms, art is a bargain...

strengthening economy, addressing social problems and

sustaining an international brand.38

Prosperity very much

depends on, ...skills and outlook when propagating more art

to more people in more places.39

Are contexts so removed

that all outcome value is lost in a cultural chasm? Ultimately,

Guyans resulting residency work speaks of humility towards

how people overcome adversity... when so much has been

taken away.40

Any resituating local and international is a

laboratorial yardstick, and residencies are all about context...

That context will always be unique.41

Kai-Oi Jay Yungs practice splinters sculpture, installation,


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video, performance; confronting participants with politically

playful interventionist dialogue that catalyse a scatological

reassessment of identity. Intercultural engagement is central to

her socio-political exchange with local communities. Recent

residencies include British Council invited Libya exchange,

long-term China project with Grizedale Arts and Vitamin

Creative Space, and EU Funded multi-destination Open-Here.

Exhibitions include Nightcomers, Istanbul Biennial, 2007, The

Whitechapel Gallery, London, Arnolfini, Bristol and Scope, New

York. She is a critical writer and Tate and Liverpool Biennial

education facilitator.

www.myspace.com/kaioi

www.myspace.com/paradisestories

www.happystacking.tv

1Porter, G, interview with author, April 2008

2Porter, G, interview. April 2008

3Lambourne, H, Tsunami: Anatomy Of A Disaster, 2005

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4381395.stm

4Annan, K, U.N. Secretary General,

www.lankalibrary.com/news.htm last accessed: July 2008.

5

Disaters and Emergency Committeewww.dec.org.uk/item/32 last accessed: July 2008.

6Butler, N, interview with author, 2 May 2008

7www.hikkaduwa.org.uk/alpha.php?articleid=2 2008.

UZ Events develops festivals and events that make a

considerable impact on Scotlands cultural landscape.

8Ibid

9Butler, N, interview May 2008

10Porter, G, interview April 2008

117 min Chandrasevana Film, http://youtube.com

/watch?v=v6z4NyoPSVQ 2008

12Butler, N, 2008.

13

Ibid14

Porter, G, 2008.

15Butler, N, 2008.

16Porter, G, 2008.

17Price, S, Scant Help For Tsunami Victims, BBC News,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific

/4671884.stm last accessed: July 2008.

18Ibid UN-backed report

19International Alert Sri Lanka, 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War

20www.cafod.org.uk/emergencies/asia-tsunami/cafod-

saddened-2006-08-09

21

Amnestys bid alongside Human Rights Watch, 2007http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War

22Porter, G, 2008.

23Ibid

24Ibid

25Ibid

26Chakravarty, Lt Col N, Tsunami survivor, India Remembers

Tsunami Victims, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world

/south_asia/4560414.stm last accessed July 2008.

27ICAF; International Child Art Foundation, 2007

www.icaf.org28

Butler, N, 2008.

29Porter, G, 2008.

30

Also known as post traumatic stress disorder31

Arabellas Diary,

www.childrensworldcharity.org/srilanka/02jetlag.php

last accessed July 2008.


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32Porter, G, 2008.

33Ibid

34Ibid

35Glasgow-based Sri Lankan Buddhist monk Venerable

Rewatha, Hikkaduwa, www.hikkaduwa.org.uk

36Watt, H, interview with author, May 2008

37Wijesiriwardana, P, Sri Lankan Artist Speaks About Death

Threats By Sinhala Extremists, www.wsws.org/articles

/2003/dec2003/sril-d12.shtml last accessed July 2008.38

Guyan Porter, Comment, a-n Magazine, 2006, p.4

39Ibid

40Interview with Guyan, op. cit

41Ibid

www.hikkaduwa.org.uk

www.chandrasevana.com

www.guyanporter.co.uk

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