‘Birthday Party’ (2016)

By Pramodha Weerasekera

Pictured: ‘Birthday Party’ (2016)

Aruni Dharmakirthi (b. 1990)
Digital collage
Image courtesy the artist

I first came across this artwork by Sri Lankan born US based artist Aruni Dharmakirthi in 2022. Last year, while working on an exhibition together, Aruni and I spoke of shared memories of birthday parties we had been a part of as children in Sri Lanka. The fluffy socks, matching party dresses, party hats, and shorteats on paper plates are all too familiar for us born in the early 1990s. I remembered it again over this Easter weekend when I attended a family dinner. However, all I could think about was how we spent our childhoods sheltered from the ongoing political chaos in the country. Along with child-like nostalgia there is a need to come to terms with the circumstances and consequences of a conflict that we were too young to comprehend.