Curating Donbe, Revisited (1)
Sarudaaru Donmaniku, Acrylic painting on floor mat, 30 x 15cm approx, 2007
Its been nearly 18 months since I began working in getting together a project about Sarudhaaru Don Maniku (fondly known among Maldivian artists as Sarudhaaru Donbe), as part of an assignment for the National Art Gallery. Initially the idea was to commission to produce new works for an exhibition and produce a catalog that would document his life and work. Things did not turn out as easy as I had initially assumed. But it has been a most worthwhile and fulfilling effort.
In my last meeting with Donbe about two weeks back he said that on one account he is now 86 years old (he has alternate dates because of a mismatch between the Julian and Islamic calenders) and he showed me the latest works he had been doing. One was a series of small acrylic paintings he had done on the back of floor matting (tharafaalu) and the other was a series of small sculpted manta rays. The rays were sculpted from a special mix he had experimented with which included normal dough and a kind of gum. It was exhilarating to meet him at this age and still as engaged in the processes of his work and still as thrilled at his discoveries and his creations. And although thoroughly engaged in the moment he also effortlessly recalled various incidents from his childhood and youth, some of which still inspires his work.
Sarudaaru Donmaniku, Acrylic painting on floor mat, 30 x 15cm approx, 2007
One reason for the delay in completing the project of an exhibition and catalog with Donbe was that he suffered several bouts of ill health during the last year or so when I had been working with him. One in fact left him in the Intensive Care Unit at IGMH in Male for weeks before being flown to Colombo for further treatment. And he also suffers from various complications to his eyes, for which he had to be treated again in India. He also have had to move house because the home where he had been living for years is now under construction.
Sarudhaaru Donmaniku with his wife, 2007
A second reason for the delay has been the difficulty of assessing Donbe’s work in an art historical context. If this was happening in India, or Sri Lanka, things would have been much easier as the basic ground work would have been completed. I am referring to the fact that we as a country have not had a proper assessment of artistic heritage. By this I do not mean to discount the archaeological surveys and other historical studies that have been done here. But we have never evaluated nor contextualized our visual art history here in the Maldives. We do not know the influences or origins of many practices that we now take for granted; for instance, painting, public sculptural works, screen printing, etc. (to be continued)