This exhibition is about the inimitable landscaped environments of Laki Senanayake, tantalizingly gestated years earlier in his drawings and sculptures. Through extensive research carried out by curator Max Moya, the exhibition presents an incisive and profound understanding of Laki’s work.

Mining drawings, sketches, publications and ephemera from a range of archives, including Laki’s own and the Geoffrey Bawa Collection, this exhibition looks at Laki’s oeuvre of landscapes as they are situated within his artistic practice. Positing that there is an ideal forest in Laki Senanayake’s mind that is the subject of most of his work, the exhibition tries to understand this fantasy space.

It seems only natural that there should be an exhibition, finally, dedicated to Laki’s landscapes. Not only has he created so many that deserve to be shown as the art form that they are, but also by interrogating his relationship with the natural world, we just may come to understand this singular man’s talents.


Film by Ryan Daniels on Laki.
(C) Ryan Daniels 2019

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21 September, Saturday
11 am | Curatorial tour with Max Moya
Peruvian Architect Max Moya first met Laki through a Home Away exchange in 2018. The two became firm friends, and Max took on the task of researching Laki's landscape work, which has been a part of Laki's practice for over 30 years. Living at Diyabubula for over three months, and spending extensive time speaking with Laki, studying the drawings and visiting the projects, Max carried out the research that would ultimately take the form of the exhibition The Greedy Forest. Limited spaces available; register with bawa100.manager@gmail.com

2 pm | Tour of Number 05 with Amila de Mel
Architect Amila de Mel worked with Geoffrey Bawa's architectural practice from 1991 - 1995. Amila will give a tour of the Ena de Silva house. In 1962 Ena de Silva and her husband Osmund commissioned Geoffrey Bawa to design their home in a modest plot in the heart of Colombo. Bawa's design negotiated the increasing urbanity of the site with an introspective design which was both radically modern and yet drew inspiration from traditional architectural tropes in Sri Lanka, like the central courtyard. The success of the design makes the house a pivotal project in Bawa's career. It was also the beginning of a deep friendship between Ena and her architect. In 2009 when Ena wished to sell the land the house was built on, Amila shepherded the Lunuganga Trust's project to work with a team of architects, archaeologists and engineers carefully disassembling the house and rebuilding it stone by stone at Lunuganga, where it stands today. Limited spaces available; register with bawa100.manager@gmail.com

3 pm | Conversation with Ruk Rakaganno
An informal discussion around trees and the possibilities of green coffins and green funerals with members of Ruk Rakaganno including Irangani Serasinghe. Ruk Rakaganno - The Tree Society of Sri Lanka - is a national NGO that was founded in 1975.

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22 September, Sunday
11 am and 2 pm | Curatorial tour with Max Moya

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23 September, Monday
11 am and 2 pm | Curatorial tour with Max Moya

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24 September, Tuesday
11 am | Curatorial tour with Max Moya

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28 September, Saturday
11am | Children’s Art Class with Shayari de Silva

Join Lunuganga Trust curator Shayari de Silva for a tour of the Greedy Forest exhibition and the Ena de Silva house aimed specially for younger visitors, to be followed by an art workshop reflecting on the exhibition and the Ena de Silva house. All materials will be provided. Limited spaces available; register with bawa100.manager@gmail.com

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29 September, Sunday
10 am - 12 pm | Ikebana - A Timeless Japanese Art
with Jennifer Moragoda

“Ikebana expresses the rich, natural beauty which accompanies seasonal change...It is about the love and need to create beautiful forms.”
—Teshigahara Sofu

Ikebana is a form of meditation that brings about self-discovery, opens your eyes to the cycles of nature and tunes you in to the universe at large.

Sogetsu Ikebana practitioner Jennifer Moragoda will lead a small group in an hands-on introduction to the sublime Japanese art of flower arranging in the natural setting of Lunuganga. Founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, Teshigahara Sofu, famously said “Anyone, anywhere, anytime with any kind of material,” in describing his approach to this distinctly Japanese tradition. The workshop will include a focus on materials found in the gardens of Lunuganga, a deeply contemplative space where order and chaos exist in perfect harmony. Part of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust's programme for The Greedy Forest, an exhibition on Laki Senanayake's landscape work, the workshop will introduce a unique approach for appreciating and engaging with nature, much like Laki's own drawings of natural settings.

All materials provided
Limited spaces available; register with bawa100.manager@gmail.com

12 pm & 2 pm | Tour of Number 05 with Amila de Mel

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21 – 29
September 2019

Time: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 
(last entry 3.30 p.m.)

Venue: No. 5 at Lunuganga (Ena de Silva house)

Entrance: Rs. 1500/- per head; includes access to the Lunuganga Gardens.

Students with valid ID enter free.

Viewing times for groups of 10 and above by appointment only. (email: bawa100.manager@gmail.com