4 days ago
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- Belfast Telegraph
‘I'm telling survivors' stories': Artist stages new Belfast exhibition after long-awaited return to homeland Sri Lanka
Anushiya Sundaralingam will bring a powerful new exhibition to Queen Street Studios this week.
Her project, Fragmented Crossings, will reflect her own story and the experiences of others.
Anushiya recently travelled back to Sri Lanka, and the exhibition captures her return home through sculpture, print and drawings.
An island country in South Asia, Sri Lanka is known for its tea production and cricket, but was torn apart by a bloody civil war which raged for 26 years until 2009. It divided the country along ethnic lines, pitting the majority-Buddhist, Sinhalese-dominated government against Tamil rebels, who wanted a separate state.
The fighting killed an estimated 100,000 people and left about 20,000, mostly Tamils, missing.
Originally from Jaffna in the country's north, Anushiya left in 1989 aged just 22. She has lived in Northern Ireland since 1995, graduating in fine and applied arts from Ulster University in 1998.
Like many who fled, Anushiya left behind not just a homeland but also the possibility of a quick return: Jaffna remained inaccessible for years due to heavy military operations and widespread destruction.
When she could return in the mid-1990s, it was under dangerous circumstances, travelling by boat through conflict zones.
'I heard that my grandma was ill, so I wanted to go and see her,' she explained.
'I went and I took my son, who was three and a half at the time, and then met somebody in Colombo [the capital], because I'm from the north of Sri Lanka, so it was hard to get to at that time.'
Due to the lack of proper roads, the journey was difficult.
'I went in on a plane and then train and then bus and coaches and mini vans. Then you had to walk from one checkpoint to another checkpoint, and then you had to pay somebody to cycle another mile, or two or three.
'My work is more focused about the journey, but I picked only one particular thing: the experience on the boat.'
Anushiya recalled the destruction she found on her return: 'Everything was bombed — there was no safe way back. We didn't know if we would make it.
'At the checkpoints, both army and [Tamil] Tigers searched us. And when we got on the boat, we had to walk into the sea silently — no talking — because the navy was nearby and could shell us. There was so much fear.'
The emotional weight of that return became a focus for the artist's work.
When she returned to Sri Lanka again this year for a three-week residency, the fear resurfaced — but in a different form.
'There was grief, anxiety, even guilt. Walking through places shaped by conflict stirred feelings I hadn't felt in years,' she explained.
'I was returning to my home, [but] I didn't feel at home there any more.'
Her journey took her from Colombo to Jaffna, through homes and care centres shaped by the legacy of war, where she met children impacted by generational trauma and others who had lived through the conflict firsthand.
'It wasn't just a return, it was a full‑circle experience. I stood again on the same soil I left three decades ago,' she explained.
'I revisited family homes, connected with local artists and discovered pieces of myself I thought I had buried.'
Anushiya also had the opportunity to retrace parts of her childhood, revisiting family and friends, her old school, former classmates and temples.
Her exhibition chronicles her work to date: 'The boats became a symbol of leaving, but also of return. The sea is both a boundary and a bridge.
'I'm still carrying the same questions in my work that I had 30 years ago, only now I can see how they've evolved. I thought I had moved on, but I'm still creating work with the same theme. It's all still there — those memories, those movements.'
As she launches her exhibition in Belfast, Anushiya hopes people connect with her experience.
'It's not just my story. It's happening all over the world,' she said.
'I'm telling the survivors' stories. Look at the war in Ukraine... This isn't just for me but it's for them too.
'I still feel like a refugee. Even now, people ask me here and in Sri Lanka: 'Where are you from?' And I'm not sure how to answer. I think we just adapt. My work has become a way of processing that.'
Anushiya visited her homeland this year through the British Council's Connections Through Culture Grants.
Jonathan Stewart, director of the British Council Northern Ireland, said: 'We are proud to support Anushiya as she continues to create meaningful art that resonates across cultures and invites reflection and healing.'
