Chathuri Nissansala

She has performed and exhibited across Asia, some of these including a solo exhibition 'Ritualizing the disfigured: Memorials of healing from Sri Lanka' by Anant art gallery (2021); solo exhibition 'Ritualizing Mutant encounters' at Barefoot Gallery Colombo (2024); 'This land is not mine, mother!', curated by Natasha Ginwala at the SNAFU building part of Colomboscope edition; performed at the 2024 'Way of the Forest', curated by Natasha Ginwala, Hitmang Gurang, Sarker Protik, Sheelasha Rajbandria; 'The Order of Nature', project by Geoffrey Bawa Trust on hidden queer histories, architecture and landscape of Lunuganga gardens designed by architect Geoffrey Bawa a research and installations were created by Thilini Perera, Shenuka Correa and Chathuri Nissansala; performance lecture at T works (trans disciplinary performance company) 2024 open academy edition at Singapore; performed at the Prince Claus Symposium 'Legacies of Care, Failures and Emerging Solidarities' at the Lunuganga Gardens in Sri Lanka.

Group exhibitions include 'Crafting the Cross Roads', curated by Somedutta Malik at Dhi art space Hyderabad (2022); 'queernocopia', curated by Myna Mukherjee under engendered platform Delhi, NFT, and physical group show (2022); 'Momentum of smell', initiated by Mullegama Art center, Sovereign ASian Art Foundation (2022); 'Rehang', curated by Uthra Rajgopal and Anant art, Bikaner House, Delhi (2021); 'Responses to Memory', curated by Oorja Garg at Gillehri Arts initiative (2020); 15th Virtual Concert: Celebrating Women’s Month in South Africa, curated by Bernadette Muthien (2020); Umnyama 2020, curated by Pranamita Borgohain and organised by Young Hearts, India (2020); Lock Unlock: Edition 9 organised by Dagmar Glaustnitzer Smith (2020); Webinars organised by Hexxyduxxybox performance art collective including The Action Poetry, curated by Frank Bready Trejo (2020); Be-coming Tree, curated by Jatun Risba, O.Pen, Danielle Imara, and Chris Grady (2020) (online) and Performance Art Project: Asia in collaboration with Rah Residency, Iran (2020). She also participated in the Student’s Biennale, Kochi Muziris Biennale, India (2016).

She has participated in various workshops and residences including 'All right Angles' residency by Colomboscope and Geoffrey Bawa Trust ( 2023); 'Kal', a collaboration between a district school in Berlin, Archive books, Goethe institute Karachi and Colombo (2021), 'Kal' extension exhibited at 12 gates Philadelphia; 'Naam' was a project collaborated with 'WE ARE FROM HERE' collective generating conversation on preserving heritage sites and current political situation of displacement, a series of online discussions Chronicles of Confinement, organised by Hector Canonge, New York (2020); Artsathone, organised by British Council, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2019) and Body workshop, facilitated by Nikhil Chopra and Madhavi Ghore, organized by HH Artspace in collaboration with Asia Art Archive and Serendipity Art Foundation, Vadodara (2017).

Currently, she’s formed an initiative called 'KAGUL' , which is an incubator for research on Sri Lanka’ Southern performative textile traditions and gender studies in them. KAGUL initiated a project called ‘FE’ to educate , create awareness and to create pockets of artisans as pockets of entrepreneurship( these pockets of artisans are from the marginal groups such as queer community,sex workers, women from rural areas). Nachchi Samayama is another collective project initiated by her to document , research and map the community called ‘Nachchi’. Nachchi’s is a term to address queer community used in the local folk language; these individuals have been existing for more than centuries as part of ritualistic acts in traditional and cultural domains.

"Since the formative years of my practice, I have tried to analyze the relationship between the recurring violence in Sri Lanka, the spirit of nationalism, and its troubled relationship with gender. The dissection of the word ‘mother’ as a site of violence, fragmented ideology abused, penetrated, and massacred by the use of words like mother-land, mother-tongue, mother-hood during every round of civil war, mass penalization, and murder continues to haunt my memory. Memorialised and etched into the public consciousness, the word ‘mother’ directs, conforms, and predetermines the role of women in society as an idyllic figure of worship that cannot exist independently.

Through the reenactment of the character Nonchi, a whimsical, satirical, and outspoken grandmother from the folklores of Kolama (the theater of mockery), I narrate the hidden stories of generational trauma and question the traditional roles of women with a tinge of humor. Traditionally performed only by men, Nonchi extends to the queer and femme body once I adorn its persona. Nonchi is not a good mother, she is not a good wife, she is not to be worshiped or revered, she is loud, she flirts around with younger men and women, and she is queer!

It was during the 2016 protests against the criminalization of homosexuality in India that I first voiced my identity as a queer artist. Through my engagement with the LGBTQIA communities of Bangalore which are still subjected to different forms of gendered and ethnic violence, I began to think about the idea of a safe space that allows one to express their gender freely. At that time, my inquiry developed into a series of drawings that captured the essence of the free queer body, naked and empowered in its own right. Unlike India, where homosexuality was decriminalized, the Sri Lankan queer community still bears the brunt of heteronormative, colonial ideologies of cis-gendered binary narratives.

After moving back to Sri Lanka in 2019, I have been working on the ground with the National Transgender Network, Equal Ground, and Jaffna Queer Sangam. My interactions and encounters with spaces they claim for themselves extended my research to hidden queer-led spaces in the heart of Colombo. Beginning to retrace the existence of queer analogies within discourses of traditional ritualistic practices. How the subjects, objects, and studies of these practices were affected by the anthropological view of the colonizers, Victorian Buddhism taking a detour from the spirituality of coexistence.

My current series under the theme 'This Land is not mine, mother' explores my prolonged research on gender identity and queering within Southern textile making traditions and rituals. The series reclaims the entity called Black Prince. The Black Prince or 'Kalu umaraya' is a demonic entity, re identified as a queer being through analysing the oral narratives and ethnographic archive material. This entity becomes the protagonist in this series who creates a performative itinerary connecting costume making tradition, queer body and sites of queer inhabitant. These performances reconnect with a community called as 'Nachchi's' , who are queer identified performers that have been part of Sri Lanka's traditional rituals for generations. 'Nachchi Samayama' (Time of the Queers) , is a series of performative ensemble mapping the language, cultural and communal inhabitant of this community.

As these bodies perform memorabilia and invoke the mystical folklore of southern Sri Lanka through personal, site-specific narratives of queer individuals, the work will highlight the dichotomies within cultural, political, and queer identity."