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Home » Countries » Sri Lanka » Aideen Mcdonald Around the world people must cope with conflicts ranging from the global to the personal, artists in many cultures and eras have interpreted the harsh realities of conflict through objects and images that are aesthetically satisfying or challenging or both. Thematic subjects range from societal, religious, and political struggles, to more individualistic competitions and internal dialogues, often eloquently draw from legend or literature. Political and social changes are reflected in art, including issues stemming from the rise of democracy and the growing awareness of societal ills. Legend and literature, particularly scenarios and plots fraught with conflict, have long inspirited artists. Individual quests reflect the human condition of conflict and resolution, overcoming pitfalls and seeking harmony. Artists have portrayed such internal conflicts, often their own, in many forms. Asoka Handagama film Aksharaya or Letter of Fire follows in this tradition. The tale of Oedipus, with the intense psychological and societal challenges it raises, are fittingly complex material for a film made in Sri Lanka, where the challenge to address and transform social conflict are greater than ever. The arts should always be a source of cathartic expression. Shying away from dealing with difficult subject matter through artistic censorship will never suppress the human need to question. In Ireland we have suffered under artistic censorship, at times causing the self-imposed exile of some of our greatest artists. James Joyce and his masterpiece Ulysses are such an example. Banned in the United States and the United Kingdom until the 1930s, Ulysses was eventually published in Paris in 1922. The work was blacklisted by Irish customs and Joyce moved to France for good. The title, Ulysses, alludes to implicit and explicit parallels inspired by the Greek epic of the same name. The subject matter too, is both challenging in an implicit and explicit nature. The controversy and scrutiny of this work have ranged from obscenity trials to protracted textual wars. The Irish press at the time reported it to have been "written by a perverted lunatic who has made a speciality of the literature of the latrine." Today Ulysses is considered to be perhaps the most highly regarded novel in the Modernist pantheon. The US director Joseph Strick’s 1967 film version of Ulysses was banned in Ireland for 33 years, it did not achieve general release until the year 2001. The state’s censorship committee believed that showing the film to "any class" of Irish audience, would bring "discredit" on the government. Nonetheless, Strick’s film gained an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2004 a new, award winning, film adaptation called Bloom was released internationally. An Irish production, directed by Seán Walsh, Bloom and its inspiration Ulysses are now a source of artistic and national pride to the people of Ireland. We must learn from each other and from history. It would be a great loss for Sri Lanka to wait 82 years to embrace Asoka Handagama and his epic film; Aksharaya. September 2007 Aideen Mcdonald, Artist / Reconciliation Activist, Irish School of Ecunemics, Dublin, Belfast - Ireland

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