Muvindu Binoy

Where About Now Where are you right now reading these questions?

Muvindu Binoy I'm at my sister's house in Colombo. Sitting in the office room.

WAN Where would you like to be while reading these questions?

MB Anywhere that I can have a smoke and listen to some tunes.

WAN Muvindu, you are a multidisciplinary artist, whose practice involves digital collage and film. Can you tell us more about it?

MB I have a tendency to jump between mediums. I'm impatient. I don't want to wait until the next big thing happens. I just want my ideas to find the desired mediums and get it over with. It's obsessive and compulsive. I rarely practice any medium to its peak. I instantly change mediums as soon as I feel like I'm getting good at it. Mastering a medium is too boring for me. I was very much into music when I was a teen, but I didn't see myself as a full-time musician. I wanted to draw, too. I had a personal struggle labeling myself to one medium. Then, I found out about filmmaking and realized I can create music and visuals at once. Recently, I got into collage and that was liberating. The way, I do it, is instant. It's visual masturbation. I gave up giving names for what I do.

WAN Your technique makes your work appear in fragments. What does this mean for you?

MB Everything. The meaning as a whole is a lie. Even people. Crowds lie, but individually nobody does. There's nothing called whole truth, but honesty in fragments. That's what I'm going for.

WAN In your images we can see mainly female bodies (fragments). Why?

MB I love the female anatomy. The aesthetics, the power, and love. I'm yet to understand or see all of that in male bodies.

WAN Where do you get your inspiration from?

MB Internet. Staring at computers for long hours browsing through creative content. Sometimes in moving cars, long rides, or late-night aimless walks.

WAN Are there local art historical traditions that interest you?

MB No, but I'm obsessed with the colonial era photographs and journalism.

WAN You live and work in Colombo, Sri Lanka. How can we imagine a working day of an artist there?

MB I don't think I can speak on behalf of most artists living and working in Colombo. Colombo city itself is on shuffle. It's what you pick and play, or something else - it's very easy to get caught up with the usual nonsense that makes you boringly creative.

WAN Does one perceive as a resident that one lives on an island?

MB I don't think it's a solid yes or a no. But the majority easily sees you as an outsider, if you don't perceive the local culture and politics, even if you are born and raised on the island. That doesn't mean the community will always outcast you, because that's not the island culture.

WAN Is there a local and/or international art community of which you see yourself part of?

MB I'm attracted to art cults. Once you call it a community, you have to take part in politics, which I don't do. I guess I need to get out more often.

WAN Do you have the opportunity to travel (domestically and internationally)?

MB Yes, I do. But internationally, it's always a struggle to get the documentation done.

WAN Do artists of an island, which is popular for tourists, have a special relationship with visitors?

MB Yes, but it's a fine line, where you are still the oppressed colonial one or a genuine enthusiast about your visitors. It's the choice you make. Sometimes visitors can't tell.

WAN Where can we meet you and where see your artwork?

MB I'm always vagabonding around Colombo. You can catch me in the transition and you can view my work physically at Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo or you can easily find loads of my work on the webs. I'm vandalizing most social mediums. Except twitter.