Take a Chill Pill draws from a familiar phrase that casually suggests restraint an instruction to soften, reduce, and remain within limits. Here, it is reframed as a subtle mechanism of control, shaping how much a woman is allowed to feel, desire, express, and occupy.
Across social, cultural, and political contexts, women are often conditioned to take less to minimize their needs, presence, and ambition. Over time, these constraints become internalized, shaping ideas of permission and self worth.
At its core, it asks: who decides the measure?
Featuring artists:
Anoma, Iromie Wijewardena, Anoli Perera, Asela Abeywardena, Chiranthika Thanthreewaththa, Malki Jayakodi, Nihara Cooray, Nimna Wickramasinghe, Omali Radhika, Thilini Jinadasa, and Ifadha Hassen
Curatorial Note
Who decides the measure?
Take a Chill Pill reconsiders a familiar phrase often used to regulate women’s emotions, presence, and behaviour. What appears casual carries an implicit demand to soften, reduce, and remain within limits. Here, the “chill pill” becomes both a mechanism of control and a site of agency, where imposed boundaries are recognized and redefined.
Within this framework, Anoma examines invisibility and emergence as systemic conditions shaped by social and cultural structures, while Anoli reconstructs fragmented nostalgia through intimate, dollhouse like memory spaces. Iromie highlights the resilience embedded in women’s everyday labour. Ifadha and Malki approach self-representation differently one through symbolic absence using still life and the pomegranate, the other through direct portraiture confronting colorism and identity.
A dialogue unfolds between Nihara, Omali, and Chiranthika, where rest, singlehood, and marriage emerge as shifting sites of agency rest as conditional, singlehood as autonomy, and marriage as a space of negotiation and transformation. Nimna reflects domestic memory through the kitchen, Asela reimagines masculinity through adornment, Thilini addresses endurance through the female body, and Raneesha explores belonging through maternal lineage.
Ultimately, Take a chill pill reframes limitation as choice, returning the authority of measure to the self.
Mandira Ranathunga
