Jamie will be blogging as part of his artist residency at Sura Medura in Sri Lanka from February to March 2019.


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SURA MEDURA - Blog 1

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  I came to Sri Lanka 12 days early - to settle in and do to some solo travel (something I have been putting off in my life for too long and never in Asia - got to face your fears as an artist! ). After a few days in Hikkaduwa I headed for the hills on the central railway line up to Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Elle. Sri Lanka is surprisingly easy to travel in, coupled with bouts of exciting and dizzying intensity. 
It was great to see the landscape change and see how people are living on the land - my main point of interest in coming here. It didn’t take long for the generous spirit of its people and natural beauty to win me over. There are however clearly some major risks to the health and wellbeing of the ecology and people here. It doesn’t take long to notice on the train and at roadsides the smell of burning plastic filling your nostrils as people get rid of their domestic waste. Plastic waste is endemic. What is really going on here? 
Now we all have been back gathered in Hikka
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SURA MEDURA - Blog 3 - Love to Sri Lanka

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Startled shadow of the fruit bat swooping dowm imprinted on the Dammissara Road arrests me on the cycle home past the Buddha statue the velvet firmament dusky blue and brass gold stars rustling undergrowth where dogs sleep on the road stars poke through the canopy of breadfruit and I halt and pay attention to this sizzling magic nocturnal crispness Sri Lanka at peace now in knowing I can leave having seen you under this sky showing me in layered ways your response to a full life the full moon topped up heart pulled back a curtain to the rhythm of this land ancient ancient ancient people working together interlocking I can feel the bass of the sea and the rain that woke up the tree frogs ------ I have been back in Scotland for a month now. The Scottish and Sri Lankan environment might as well exist on two different parallel planes, both are alive but in apparently opposite ways, moods and tones… The final showing at th
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SURA MEDURA - Kandy

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Experimental 3d design inspired by Kandy and sound  https://vimeo.com/320206010 Kandy is situated right in the centre of the mountainous district of Sri Lanka . It is an ancient home for world Buddhism and a centuries old sit of pilgrimage. I went on Sri Lankan National Day - February 4th with great crowds filtering and pushing through the temple. I found the whole place very effecting having never been part of such a mass religious ceremony.  The smell of purple lotus flowers held aloft.  People buzzing with the hope of a momentary blessing bestowed from seeing the relic of the Buddha's tooth in its sacred chamber. There is a deep sense of worship that emanates from the place and wraps you up in it. In my search for a place to meditate in Sri Lanka I couldn't work out where people stop to praise. In my initial visits to temples I was surprised to find there is not a a meditation hall. Commonly, there is a stupa, a
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