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Colomboscope Festival Month is here! Over 50 Artists and collaborators from across Sri Lanka and the world extend their visions, creative magic and set the pulse for Rhythm Alliances. Final preparations are underway and we’re counting down to the exhibition chapters and events unfolding across Colombo in just three weeks!

Edit: Futher artists participating in this edition include Atiyyah Khan and Vaimaila Urale.

Admission to Colomboscope and related events is free.

#colomboscope #colombo #rhythmalliances #festival #srilanka

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

In a newly commissioned work for Colomboscope, artist Chamindika Abeysinghe launched his pixel art video game ‘Taala Village’ (2024–25), which translated to ‘Village of Rhythms’. 🎮

From the immersive world of gaming at hand, the artist retreated to proto-design ideas of early game building with minimal pixels. His characters were mobilized through Sri Lankan music instruments and sonic layering. Visitors were invited to venture into a virtual island where echoes, whispers, chimes, and vibrations accompanied each action sequence. There, a speculative community, reflective of Sri Lanka’s communal lives, worshipped fire alongside practising unique rituals, legends, and folklore. ‘Taala Village’ exemplified Abeysinghe’s practice of developing video gaming as a wayfinding technique in cultural storytelling.

Commissoned by Colomboscope. Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka @goetheinstitut_srilanka

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

The Current V: Ancestral Ocean is the new edition of TBA21–Academy’s curatorial fellowship program. This cycle, led by Natasha Ginwala, traces oceanic kinships, cultural languages, embodied legacies, ancestral memory, and marine historiographies resonant across the Indian Ocean World.

Between 2026 and 2028,the program brings together artists, researchers, and musicians through a series of gatherings, research processes, and public moments, including the recent first Convening, which took place during the Colomboscope Festival in Sri Lanka in January 2026.

Discover the full video on our YouTube channel.

Video: @youremyfavoritenyc

This week, we’re taking a closer look at another commission for the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Artist Haseeb Ahmed’s site-specific installation ‘Vanquish the Void!’ (2026), exhibited as part of the festival at @barefootgallery. 🌿

________________________________

For Rhythm Alliances, Ahmed reimagined the colonial punkhawalla fan as a participatory, site-specific installation engaging with coastal winds. Drawing on the entanglements that simultaneously control nature and human that divided the ‘fanned’ from the ‘fanning’, the fan returns here as an instrument of shared agency, animated by an automated aeoliphone, a musical device that translates wind into sound and will simultaneously produce it as well. Fabric and wood, reminiscent of traditional manual wind-catching structures, become vessels for breath, rhythm, and exchange.

The installation links ancient trade winds and colonial sea routes to contemporary energy politics. Developed with research support from architectural historian Pamudu Tennakoon, the project draws on Colombo’s architectures of airflow and memory. Ahmed’s work restores the wind’s intimacy, bringing planetary phenomena to the scale of the body, inviting us to feel the air not merely as movement, but as a living history of connection and resistance.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

This week, we’re taking a closer look at another commission for the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Artist Haseeb Ahmed’s site-specific installation ‘Vanquish the Void!’ (2026), exhibited as part of the festival at @barefootgallery. 🌿

________________________________

For Rhythm Alliances, Ahmed reimagined the colonial punkhawalla fan as a participatory, site-specific installation engaging with coastal winds. Drawing on the entanglements that simultaneously control nature and human that divided the ‘fanned’ from the ‘fanning’, the fan returns here as an instrument of shared agency, animated by an automated aeoliphone, a musical device that translates wind into sound and will simultaneously produce it as well. Fabric and wood, reminiscent of traditional manual wind-catching structures, become vessels for breath, rhythm, and exchange.

The installation links ancient trade winds and colonial sea routes to contemporary energy politics. Developed with research support from architectural historian Pamudu Tennakoon, the project draws on Colombo’s architectures of airflow and memory. Ahmed’s work restores the wind’s intimacy, bringing planetary phenomena to the scale of the body, inviting us to feel the air not merely as movement, but as a living history of connection and resistance.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

This week, we’re taking a closer look at another commission for the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Artist Haseeb Ahmed’s site-specific installation ‘Vanquish the Void!’ (2026), exhibited as part of the festival at @barefootgallery. 🌿

________________________________

For Rhythm Alliances, Ahmed reimagined the colonial punkhawalla fan as a participatory, site-specific installation engaging with coastal winds. Drawing on the entanglements that simultaneously control nature and human that divided the ‘fanned’ from the ‘fanning’, the fan returns here as an instrument of shared agency, animated by an automated aeoliphone, a musical device that translates wind into sound and will simultaneously produce it as well. Fabric and wood, reminiscent of traditional manual wind-catching structures, become vessels for breath, rhythm, and exchange.

The installation links ancient trade winds and colonial sea routes to contemporary energy politics. Developed with research support from architectural historian Pamudu Tennakoon, the project draws on Colombo’s architectures of airflow and memory. Ahmed’s work restores the wind’s intimacy, bringing planetary phenomena to the scale of the body, inviting us to feel the air not merely as movement, but as a living history of connection and resistance.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

This week, we’re taking a closer look at another commission for the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Artist Haseeb Ahmed’s site-specific installation ‘Vanquish the Void!’ (2026), exhibited as part of the festival at @barefootgallery. 🌿

________________________________

For Rhythm Alliances, Ahmed reimagined the colonial punkhawalla fan as a participatory, site-specific installation engaging with coastal winds. Drawing on the entanglements that simultaneously control nature and human that divided the ‘fanned’ from the ‘fanning’, the fan returns here as an instrument of shared agency, animated by an automated aeoliphone, a musical device that translates wind into sound and will simultaneously produce it as well. Fabric and wood, reminiscent of traditional manual wind-catching structures, become vessels for breath, rhythm, and exchange.

The installation links ancient trade winds and colonial sea routes to contemporary energy politics. Developed with research support from architectural historian Pamudu Tennakoon, the project draws on Colombo’s architectures of airflow and memory. Ahmed’s work restores the wind’s intimacy, bringing planetary phenomena to the scale of the body, inviting us to feel the air not merely as movement, but as a living history of connection and resistance.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

This week, we’re taking a closer look at another commission for the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Artist Haseeb Ahmed’s site-specific installation ‘Vanquish the Void!’ (2026), exhibited as part of the festival at @barefootgallery. 🌿

________________________________

For Rhythm Alliances, Ahmed reimagined the colonial punkhawalla fan as a participatory, site-specific installation engaging with coastal winds. Drawing on the entanglements that simultaneously control nature and human that divided the ‘fanned’ from the ‘fanning’, the fan returns here as an instrument of shared agency, animated by an automated aeoliphone, a musical device that translates wind into sound and will simultaneously produce it as well. Fabric and wood, reminiscent of traditional manual wind-catching structures, become vessels for breath, rhythm, and exchange.

The installation links ancient trade winds and colonial sea routes to contemporary energy politics. Developed with research support from architectural historian Pamudu Tennakoon, the project draws on Colombo’s architectures of airflow and memory. Ahmed’s work restores the wind’s intimacy, bringing planetary phenomena to the scale of the body, inviting us to feel the air not merely as movement, but as a living history of connection and resistance.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

This week, we’re taking a closer look at another commission for the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Artist Haseeb Ahmed’s site-specific installation ‘Vanquish the Void!’ (2026), exhibited as part of the festival at @barefootgallery. 🌿

________________________________

For Rhythm Alliances, Ahmed reimagined the colonial punkhawalla fan as a participatory, site-specific installation engaging with coastal winds. Drawing on the entanglements that simultaneously control nature and human that divided the ‘fanned’ from the ‘fanning’, the fan returns here as an instrument of shared agency, animated by an automated aeoliphone, a musical device that translates wind into sound and will simultaneously produce it as well. Fabric and wood, reminiscent of traditional manual wind-catching structures, become vessels for breath, rhythm, and exchange.

The installation links ancient trade winds and colonial sea routes to contemporary energy politics. Developed with research support from architectural historian Pamudu Tennakoon, the project draws on Colombo’s architectures of airflow and memory. Ahmed’s work restores the wind’s intimacy, bringing planetary phenomena to the scale of the body, inviting us to feel the air not merely as movement, but as a living history of connection and resistance.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Electro Chaabi (2013) and Sudan, Remember Us (2024), two documentary films by journalist and filmmaker Hind Meddeb, were screened at Colomboscope: Rhythm Alliances earlier this year.

In this episode of ASAP Cast, Upasana Das speaks with Meddeb on the role of friendship in her filmmaking practice and the sustained acts of care that have endured on the protest ground long after the revolutionary moment.

You can listen to the podcast on the app as well as the website. Link in bio!

The editorial work at ASAP | art is supported by The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

Keywords: New Media, Resistance, Moving Images/Film, Gender

#asap #asapart #alkazifoundation

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Aboothahir Al Wajahath’s (@wajaahath_) commission for Colomboscope titled ‘Naada’ (2025) comprises a selection of sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
_______

The artists connects legacies of textile labour with embodied vocabularies of handloom weaving and rhythm keeping. His project presents the unique handloom design vocabularies of his family, as opposed to mere hyper- commercial mass production. The loom’s sonic and gestural repetition by weavers is accompanied by leads to occupational health problems, with continuous sitting and exposure to toxic pigments and dust causing respiratory illnesses and impaired vision.

The emaciated sore-ridden feet of the weaver embody this labour against the backdrop of colourful handloom pieces on the same surface. Wajahath’s work speaks to the future of the handloom and garment industries, celebrating cultural heritage while questioning their impact on human labour.

Commissioned by Colomboscope, supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

📷: T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan) and Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis)

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

_____

The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

_____

The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

_____

The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

_____

The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

_____

The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

_____

The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Today we’re sharing another one of the over 30 commissioned projects developed by artists for the 9th edition of Colomboscope: ‘Dhows’ (2025) by Tissa de Alwis (@tissadealwis) ⛵️

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The installation Dhows (2025) at Colomboscope brings together existing and new elements, illustrative of De Alwis’ aesthetics. He turns to a microcosm of dhows—traditional sailing vessels that have traversed
the Indian Ocean over centuries. Routinely ferrying fresh produce, spices, and silks among other merchandise through coastal routes of West Asia, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Yemen, and South Asia from pre-colonial times to today, the dhow remains a symbol of maritime crossroads, where languages, ideas, trading cultures converge. De Alwis references iconic travellers such as the Moroccan explorer and scholar Ibn Battuta who visited Sri Lanka in the 1300s and lesser known voyagers of these island waters. He conjures an ensemble of sailors, merchants, explorers, and entertainers in motion across voyages of discovery, conquest, and diplomacy. De Alwis collaborates with Galle-based photographer Nayanahari Abeynayake to choreograph scenes with the dhow and its crew along the Galle Fort at the Lighthouse hotel. This backdrop is a reminder of the hybrid lineages that flow through Lanka—of memory spaces wrecked and salvaged as well as forecasts of monsoon currents.

The installation was also accompanied by ‘Stories of Marine Species’, a claymaking workshop with the artist designed for children.

📷: Charith Heenpalla (@charithheenpalla) & Ruvin de Silva (@ruvinds)

Supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka.

Colomboscope’s 9th edition ‘Rhythm Alliances’ was greatly shaped by the over 30 commissioned projects developed by local and international artists. In this new series, we want to revisit these works and how the participating creatives engaged with the festival’s curatorial framework. 🌟

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Sabeen Omar’s practice engages with the rhythms of the everyday using materials that are often discarded. Informed by her background in mathematics, Omar creates geometric structures on handmade, impermanent, imperfect canvases of clothing, bed linen, handkerchiefs, and cardboard collected at home.

In her project for Colomboscope, Omar leaned into the intergenerational embodied rhythms of sewing, needlework, beading, and crocheting as practised by the maternal side of her family. Each work was made of a discarded family bedsheet and pieces of her sister’s shalwar, which had been first coated with gesso and then disrupted by pieces of crochet and beadwork, while evoking the bodily rhythms that would have gone into the patterns that emerged. For Omar, crocheting was a special and new aspect as she experienced how the process transmitted meaning from hand to thread. Omar’s visual works were accompanied by a sound piece that homed in on the intergenerational linguistics of her blended, multicultural family with roots in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Colombo. Her mother and grandmother sang lullabies and spoke to her son in Sinhala, English, and Gujarati, interwoven with non-verbal hums and soft murmurs beside rainfall and sounds filtering through her garden studio.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis) and T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan)

Colomboscope’s 9th edition ‘Rhythm Alliances’ was greatly shaped by the over 30 commissioned projects developed by local and international artists. In this new series, we want to revisit these works and how the participating creatives engaged with the festival’s curatorial framework. 🌟

_____

Sabeen Omar’s practice engages with the rhythms of the everyday using materials that are often discarded. Informed by her background in mathematics, Omar creates geometric structures on handmade, impermanent, imperfect canvases of clothing, bed linen, handkerchiefs, and cardboard collected at home.

In her project for Colomboscope, Omar leaned into the intergenerational embodied rhythms of sewing, needlework, beading, and crocheting as practised by the maternal side of her family. Each work was made of a discarded family bedsheet and pieces of her sister’s shalwar, which had been first coated with gesso and then disrupted by pieces of crochet and beadwork, while evoking the bodily rhythms that would have gone into the patterns that emerged. For Omar, crocheting was a special and new aspect as she experienced how the process transmitted meaning from hand to thread. Omar’s visual works were accompanied by a sound piece that homed in on the intergenerational linguistics of her blended, multicultural family with roots in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Colombo. Her mother and grandmother sang lullabies and spoke to her son in Sinhala, English, and Gujarati, interwoven with non-verbal hums and soft murmurs beside rainfall and sounds filtering through her garden studio.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis) and T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan)

Colomboscope’s 9th edition ‘Rhythm Alliances’ was greatly shaped by the over 30 commissioned projects developed by local and international artists. In this new series, we want to revisit these works and how the participating creatives engaged with the festival’s curatorial framework. 🌟

_____

Sabeen Omar’s practice engages with the rhythms of the everyday using materials that are often discarded. Informed by her background in mathematics, Omar creates geometric structures on handmade, impermanent, imperfect canvases of clothing, bed linen, handkerchiefs, and cardboard collected at home.

In her project for Colomboscope, Omar leaned into the intergenerational embodied rhythms of sewing, needlework, beading, and crocheting as practised by the maternal side of her family. Each work was made of a discarded family bedsheet and pieces of her sister’s shalwar, which had been first coated with gesso and then disrupted by pieces of crochet and beadwork, while evoking the bodily rhythms that would have gone into the patterns that emerged. For Omar, crocheting was a special and new aspect as she experienced how the process transmitted meaning from hand to thread. Omar’s visual works were accompanied by a sound piece that homed in on the intergenerational linguistics of her blended, multicultural family with roots in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Colombo. Her mother and grandmother sang lullabies and spoke to her son in Sinhala, English, and Gujarati, interwoven with non-verbal hums and soft murmurs beside rainfall and sounds filtering through her garden studio.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis) and T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan)

Colomboscope’s 9th edition ‘Rhythm Alliances’ was greatly shaped by the over 30 commissioned projects developed by local and international artists. In this new series, we want to revisit these works and how the participating creatives engaged with the festival’s curatorial framework. 🌟

_____

Sabeen Omar’s practice engages with the rhythms of the everyday using materials that are often discarded. Informed by her background in mathematics, Omar creates geometric structures on handmade, impermanent, imperfect canvases of clothing, bed linen, handkerchiefs, and cardboard collected at home.

In her project for Colomboscope, Omar leaned into the intergenerational embodied rhythms of sewing, needlework, beading, and crocheting as practised by the maternal side of her family. Each work was made of a discarded family bedsheet and pieces of her sister’s shalwar, which had been first coated with gesso and then disrupted by pieces of crochet and beadwork, while evoking the bodily rhythms that would have gone into the patterns that emerged. For Omar, crocheting was a special and new aspect as she experienced how the process transmitted meaning from hand to thread. Omar’s visual works were accompanied by a sound piece that homed in on the intergenerational linguistics of her blended, multicultural family with roots in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Colombo. Her mother and grandmother sang lullabies and spoke to her son in Sinhala, English, and Gujarati, interwoven with non-verbal hums and soft murmurs beside rainfall and sounds filtering through her garden studio.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis) and T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan)

Colomboscope’s 9th edition ‘Rhythm Alliances’ was greatly shaped by the over 30 commissioned projects developed by local and international artists. In this new series, we want to revisit these works and how the participating creatives engaged with the festival’s curatorial framework. 🌟

_____

Sabeen Omar’s practice engages with the rhythms of the everyday using materials that are often discarded. Informed by her background in mathematics, Omar creates geometric structures on handmade, impermanent, imperfect canvases of clothing, bed linen, handkerchiefs, and cardboard collected at home.

In her project for Colomboscope, Omar leaned into the intergenerational embodied rhythms of sewing, needlework, beading, and crocheting as practised by the maternal side of her family. Each work was made of a discarded family bedsheet and pieces of her sister’s shalwar, which had been first coated with gesso and then disrupted by pieces of crochet and beadwork, while evoking the bodily rhythms that would have gone into the patterns that emerged. For Omar, crocheting was a special and new aspect as she experienced how the process transmitted meaning from hand to thread. Omar’s visual works were accompanied by a sound piece that homed in on the intergenerational linguistics of her blended, multicultural family with roots in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Colombo. Her mother and grandmother sang lullabies and spoke to her son in Sinhala, English, and Gujarati, interwoven with non-verbal hums and soft murmurs beside rainfall and sounds filtering through her garden studio.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis) and T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan)

Colomboscope’s 9th edition ‘Rhythm Alliances’ was greatly shaped by the over 30 commissioned projects developed by local and international artists. In this new series, we want to revisit these works and how the participating creatives engaged with the festival’s curatorial framework. 🌟

_____

Sabeen Omar’s practice engages with the rhythms of the everyday using materials that are often discarded. Informed by her background in mathematics, Omar creates geometric structures on handmade, impermanent, imperfect canvases of clothing, bed linen, handkerchiefs, and cardboard collected at home.

In her project for Colomboscope, Omar leaned into the intergenerational embodied rhythms of sewing, needlework, beading, and crocheting as practised by the maternal side of her family. Each work was made of a discarded family bedsheet and pieces of her sister’s shalwar, which had been first coated with gesso and then disrupted by pieces of crochet and beadwork, while evoking the bodily rhythms that would have gone into the patterns that emerged. For Omar, crocheting was a special and new aspect as she experienced how the process transmitted meaning from hand to thread. Omar’s visual works were accompanied by a sound piece that homed in on the intergenerational linguistics of her blended, multicultural family with roots in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Colombo. Her mother and grandmother sang lullabies and spoke to her son in Sinhala, English, and Gujarati, interwoven with non-verbal hums and soft murmurs beside rainfall and sounds filtering through her garden studio.

📷: Sanjaya Mendis (@sanjaya_mendis) and T. Tilaxan (@t.tilaxan)

Recently screened at Colomboscope: Rhythm Alliances, Sameer Farooq’s The Silk Road of Pop (2013) unfolds as a refractive dialogue between traditional and contemporary Uyghur music, taking shape through pop and hardcore rock.

In the second part of the essay, Upasana Das draws from the film to reflect on how Uyghur music remains largely inaccessible on the World Wide Web—mislabelled and seldom available beyond Chinese platforms—leaving both older and younger generations in Xinjiang struggling to preserve and be remembered through their musical traditions.

You can read the essay on the app as well as the website. Link in bio!

Image Credit: All images are stills from The Silk Road of Pop (2013) by Sameer Farooq. Image courtesy of the director.

The editorial work at ASAP | art is supported by The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

Keywords: Resistance, Labour, Moving Images/Film, New Media

#asap #asapart #alkazifoundation

Recently screened at Colomboscope: Rhythm Alliances, Sameer Farooq’s The Silk Road of Pop (2013) unfolds as a refractive dialogue between traditional and contemporary Uyghur music, taking shape through pop and hardcore rock.

In the second part of the essay, Upasana Das draws from the film to reflect on how Uyghur music remains largely inaccessible on the World Wide Web—mislabelled and seldom available beyond Chinese platforms—leaving both older and younger generations in Xinjiang struggling to preserve and be remembered through their musical traditions.

You can read the essay on the app as well as the website. Link in bio!

Image Credit: All images are stills from The Silk Road of Pop (2013) by Sameer Farooq. Image courtesy of the director.

The editorial work at ASAP | art is supported by The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

Keywords: Resistance, Labour, Moving Images/Film, New Media

#asap #asapart #alkazifoundation

Screened earlier this year at the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Rhythm Alliances, Sameer Farooq’s The Silk Road of Pop (2013) captures a generation of young Uyghur musicians expressing their anger through music, pushing back against the primitivist stereotypes imposed by China.

In the first part of this two-part essay, Upasana Das explores how Xinjiang’s music scene resists state-led efforts to dilute Uyghur and other Muslim minority identities—both by preserving traditional musical forms and by reimagining them through genres like hip hop and rock.

You can read the essay on the app as well as the website. Link in bio!

Image Credit: All images are stills from The Silk Road of Pop (2013) by Sameer Farooq. Image courtesy of the director.

The editorial work at ASAP | art is supported by The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

Keywords: Resistance, Labour, Moving Images/Film, New Media

#asap #asapart #alkazifoundation

Screened earlier this year at the ninth edition of Colomboscope: Rhythm Alliances, Sameer Farooq’s The Silk Road of Pop (2013) captures a generation of young Uyghur musicians expressing their anger through music, pushing back against the primitivist stereotypes imposed by China.

In the first part of this two-part essay, Upasana Das explores how Xinjiang’s music scene resists state-led efforts to dilute Uyghur and other Muslim minority identities—both by preserving traditional musical forms and by reimagining them through genres like hip hop and rock.

You can read the essay on the app as well as the website. Link in bio!

Image Credit: All images are stills from The Silk Road of Pop (2013) by Sameer Farooq. Image courtesy of the director.

The editorial work at ASAP | art is supported by The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

Keywords: Resistance, Labour, Moving Images/Film, New Media

#asap #asapart #alkazifoundation

We converge in gratitude once more for the extending circles of participants, over 60 local and international cultural partners, patrons and friends of the festival. This festival chapter wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Especially to our patrons and friends of the festival — thank you for your trust, generosity and belief in the vision of Colomboscope. Your support created the foundation on which artistic ideas, experimentation, and growing alliances with audiences could flourish in deep reciprocity.

What unfolded during the festival days was shaped not only by the works presented, but by the commitment behind the scenes and a shared investment in research, mentorship, dialogue, and connection.

We converge in gratitude once more for the extending circles of participants, over 60 local and international cultural partners, patrons and friends of the festival. This festival chapter wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Especially to our patrons and friends of the festival — thank you for your trust, generosity and belief in the vision of Colomboscope. Your support created the foundation on which artistic ideas, experimentation, and growing alliances with audiences could flourish in deep reciprocity.

What unfolded during the festival days was shaped not only by the works presented, but by the commitment behind the scenes and a shared investment in research, mentorship, dialogue, and connection.

We converge in gratitude once more for the extending circles of participants, over 60 local and international cultural partners, patrons and friends of the festival. This festival chapter wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Especially to our patrons and friends of the festival — thank you for your trust, generosity and belief in the vision of Colomboscope. Your support created the foundation on which artistic ideas, experimentation, and growing alliances with audiences could flourish in deep reciprocity.

What unfolded during the festival days was shaped not only by the works presented, but by the commitment behind the scenes and a shared investment in research, mentorship, dialogue, and connection.

We converge in gratitude once more for the extending circles of participants, over 60 local and international cultural partners, patrons and friends of the festival. This festival chapter wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Especially to our patrons and friends of the festival — thank you for your trust, generosity and belief in the vision of Colomboscope. Your support created the foundation on which artistic ideas, experimentation, and growing alliances with audiences could flourish in deep reciprocity.

What unfolded during the festival days was shaped not only by the works presented, but by the commitment behind the scenes and a shared investment in research, mentorship, dialogue, and connection.

As we mark two months past the end of the festival, we are excited to share the Colomboscope 2026 festival video! 🌟

The ninth edition of Colomboscope took shape and form with the title Rhythm Alliances, conceived and curated by guest curator Hajra Haider Karrar (@hajrakarrar) with artistic director Natasha Ginwala (@natasha_ginwala) and the festival team. As the largest and most widespread festival edition, Colomoboscope continues to foster experimental artistic forays, collective experimentation, cross-genre formations, and learning-based gatherings throughout the festival venues and collaborations to infuse a sense of adventure, social plurality, conviviality as well as creative rebellion in the public imagination.

🎥: Fold Media Collective @foldmedia

Find the video on youtube via the link in our bio!