There is a curious, understated dynamism to Ponnaiyah Peter’s work that draws you in before you fully understand what you are looking at.
At a distance, the surfaces appear controlled, almost delicate, built from fine dots and lines that move across the page with quiet precision. But stay with them a little longer, and the weight begins to settle. What first reads as restraint slowly reveals something far more loaded, shaped by memory, loss, and a lived experience of war that continues to echo through the work.
Peter’s first solo exhibition, ‘ஈசல் Mayfly,’ opens this month, bringing together a body of work that reflects on impermanence, displacement, and the fragile continuity of life. It is, in many ways, an extension of his own history. Aged 27, born in Mullaitivu and based in Kilinochchi, he grew up during the final years of the war, a period marked by constant movement and uncertainty.
That sense of not knowing, of existing within a suspended state, sits at the centre of the exhibition. It is not expressed through overt narrative, but through a set of recurring visual elements that carry the weight of those experiences in quieter ways.
“During the war, that’s how my and my family’s lives were,” he said. “We knew we could die at any point, but didn’t know when or how or where.”
A language shaped by memory
Peter’s journey into art began early, though not in any formal sense. At school, he chose art as part of his aesthetic studies, drawn to it instinctively.
“I used to draw nicely,” he said, recalling how teachers and family members encouraged him. “They would say I would become a great artist.”
At the time, that idea felt distant. “For me, to be an artist was something like magic,” he explained. “I didn’t know how.”
It was only later, at the Eastern University, that the possibility began to take shape. Enrolled in the Visual and Technological Arts programme, he was exposed to a wider range of practices, from digital work to craft-based approaches, alongside a growing awareness of contemporary art.
“When I was in university, I learnt a lot and received a lot of exposure to things,” he said. “Then I realised, I could also become an artist.”
