Passages by Anushiya Sundaralingam

2025-10-02 18:00:00

About the exhibition:

Passages navigates the psychological and physical experience of migration through a multidisciplinary approach combining drawing, sculpture, and installation. Central to the work are fragile sculptural boats and vessels that evoke skeletal structures—embodying the tension between vulnerability and endurance. These forms carry not only the physical weight of travel but also the invisible burdens of memory, trauma, and cultural identity.

The boats’ delicate frameworks echo the human skeleton—structures that support yet fracture, heal, and hold history. This duality invites viewers to contemplate how displacement shapes the body and psyche alike.

Passages reflects the fluid, often fragmented nature of migration—marked by disorientation, resilience, loss, and transformation. It is a layered, evolving dialogue about crossing boundaries, carrying histories, and the ongoing work of remembering and rebuilding. The exhibition is a meditation on movement as both physical passage and emotional journey—a shared, universal story.

About the artist: Anushiya is a multidisciplinary artist from Sri Lanka, now based in Belfast, working across printmaking, painting, sculpture, textiles, installation, mixed media, and performance. Her practice explores migration, cultural memory, identity, and belonging, shaped by my move from Sri Lanka to Northern Ireland in 1989. A graduate of the University of Ulster (1998), she exhibits locally and internationally, with work in public and private collections. Based at Queen Street Studios and Belfast Print Workshop, she also works as an arts facilitator. Her work seeks to build cultural understanding and create spaces for shared stories and meaningful connections through art.
A pivotal moment in her personal and artistic journey was returning to Sri Lanka from the UK in 1995, during the height of the civil war. That journey—marked by travel across land and sea, including small boats—left a deep emotional imprint. It underscored the complex

interplay between danger and safety, loss and reconnection, which continues to inform the emotional terrain of her work.

Exhibition times:

Late Night Art opening event: 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Thursday 2 October
Exhibition: Thursday 2 until Friday 24 October by normal opening hours (Tuesday to Friday 10:00 am – 5:30 pm)
Bounce weekend opening: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm on Saturday 4 October, and 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm on Sunday 5 October
Artist Talk: Friday 3 October from 2:00 – 3:00 pm in the Atypical Gallery (free, no booking required)