Born in Galle, Sri Lanka, Sudath Abeysekara studied Fine Art at the Kelaniya University under Jagath Ravindra, another very talented
senior artist from the island. The Noble Sage first exhibited a series of Abeysekera works titled ‘The Crow and…’ that the artist began
in 2002 after the artist received a scholarship to London. Prompted by the malicious characteristics of human behaviour, Abeysekara
started to see the menagerie of Sri Lankan ancient stories and fables surrounding the crow as a means to uncover the darker side of
man. The crow is perhaps the most recognisable of all birds in Sri Lanka, the unsaid mascot of the country. Its shrill cry is the first
noise you hear when you wake up and its squawking follows you everywhere throughout the day. The guttural response it receives,
for the most part, is one of revulsion and disgust, the bird being a scavenger of rubbish and unguarded food on your plate. As the
artist describes, ‘It is pushed away…. an alienated, ugly creature’. In folk tales, however, the crow is both the subject of ridicule and
awe. In one famous story the crow drops stones into a pot to cleverly raise the level of the water so it can drink. In another fable, the
one most potent in meaning to the artist, the crow steals a piece of cheese and sits on a tree with it in its mouth. A fox sees the
cheese from below and praises the crow, its beautiful neck, legs and beak, tricking it to reply to the flattery and thus drop the cheese.
To Abeysekara, the story has an analogous meaning for the nature of human relationships: that most humans have an ulterior
motive, one solely for their own gain. Even an act such as praise, an act that by its very conception is meant to be for the benefit of
another, is often ultimately rooted in egoism and self-centredness. In many of his paintings, the crow, normally a wild creature
screaming from the trees, is stationary and still at ground level with us. It is left as a perfect silhouette entirely intact. Next to it or
behind it, the frantic tussle of one or two humans can be perceived, abstractly reduced to motion lines and wild brushstrokes of
colour. The implication reminds us again of the duality of the crow. Here, it appears wise, implied in its still stance and repeated
recognisable depiction. It is reminiscent of the former story of the clever crow and the pot of water. Meanwhile human behaviour is
shown in utter chaos, struggling for power and supremacy. Whilst the crow is often the subject of disgust and exile, Abeysekara
shows the reverse: the crow is the standard-bearer of all that is right in the country, the motif and perhaps metaphorical embodiment
of the artist himself. In his most recent works Abeysekera turns his attention to the environment and our relationship with this fragile
necessity in our lives.