Will 2016 be the pivotal year when notions of humanity, integrity and liberal ideals succumbed to the base instincts of our lesser selves?

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa was inspired by the migration and refugee crisis unleashed on the world by war, poverty and famine, with desperate people seeking security and survival; and the following political shockwaves that reverberated throughout the globe, creating a volte face for values, morality, ethics and societal norms. It is a response to the rise and normalization of the unconscionable, the divisive and destructive forces of intolerance, hatred and bigotry.

Perhaps Sri Lanka which has so recently suffered the pain of conflict and loss, can be the beacon of hope, of values, of inclusion? Can human beings surmount our base greed, and need to compete for ourselves, and instead compete to improve our society and environment?

The medium of transparent fabric references the fragility of home, refugee tents, Calais jungles, and alludes to the idea that walls and borders are really a fragile construct of man. The perforations reiterate the need for openness since everything today is porous and leaking.

The images remind us of the fragility of the environment. Not only was this the year of hot political events, but as climate change accelerates, it was the hottest year ever on record.

The bowl at the centre channels the sun, energy, the holy grail, the cup of loving kindness, maitreeya.

The spiraling crystal ball questions how our unfathomable future will unfold, creating illusions and intangibility, in a spinning, out of control globe.

The concertina installation documents the creative process. The collaborative production itself being a diverse journey of action in unison.

The inspirational spoken and written words of thinkers and spiritual leaders from every persuasion, period of time and place, calls us to reach for our higher selves.

Sri Lanka’s foremost intellectual Gananath Obeyesekere, invites us ‘to raise their collective voice and jolt the public conscience, showing us the terrifying discriminations we have invented and hopefully persuading us to resurrect the gentleness, our feminine nature, one might even say, that many of us have suppressed.

Then perhaps we can go to sleep.’