Harshana and Teran are two artists creatively seeking new directions that art could take whilst maintaining connections to our traditions and history. At their previous exhibition "Entrance" in January 2016 at the JD A Perera Gallery Harshana explored the limitations and adverse effects of materialism and consumerism while Teran explored the theme of visual pollution which disfigures our cities. In this exhibition at the Sapumal Foundation entitled "Repetition" they have moved on and developed this theme in different ways. Harshana uses discarded polythene materials, which would otherwise be added to garbage dumps, so much in the news today, to create art works. He uses polythene 'shopping bags used to takes thing from shop to home, there to be discarded and added to garbage. He creates something of aesthetic import with these bags. His work has some resonances with the work of Geoffrey Beling, George Keyt and Ivan Peries at the Sapumal Foundation, albeit in a new medium. The 'piece-de-resistance' of his work being shown here is a large installation made of polythene sections which blows hither and thither to resonate with the movement of the city or maybe even the movement of a garbage dump prior to it collapsing. I feel he is indicating the value of recycling in an aesthetic way. Also perhaps there is an underlying theme of impermanence since the whole installation deflates if it is pricked. Teran takes figures from 18th and 19th Century medieval temple paintings on temple walls and recreates them in a new 3D aesthetic, altering shape, line, texture, color etc., and encasing them in resin, One can walk around his exhibition and get a kinetic impression. He is connecting with our traditional religious art but expressing and repeating it in a way that is perhaps more suited to our times. His work resonates with the temple painting copies of LTP Manjushree which are at the Sapumal Foundation. I feel he hopes that we will revive and repeat the underlying spirit of our traditional ways while doing away with outward forms which are no longer relevant. Our present consumerist culture devours the earth's resources for the benefit of humans only, creating garbage which is not easily broken down. Those resources, such as trees, forests and lakes, normally self-renewing and of use to all beings, are laid waste to create industries making furniture, houses, hotels, weapons, vehicles and roads which cannot renew themselves, of use only to humans. In addition their manufacture pollutes the water, air and soil posing major health hazards to all beings including but not limited to humans. The ever-increasing share of land used for industries, urbanization, tourism and warfare also deprives other life forms of the land they need to survive and thrive in. We humans need to take a more balanced and long-term view of our activities and their effect on the world at large. Surely Nature will one day resolve this in drastic but unforeseen ways but it will undoubtedly adversely affect us humans too unless we mend our ways very soon. Rohan De Soysa Chairman Sapumal Foundation