The ongoing exhibition ‘Slap: Adhesives & Egos’, hosted by the Hot Butter Collective showcases a variety of street stickers by artists in Sri Lanka, Singapore and New York. Speaking exclusively to Daily Mirror Life, co-founder of the Hot Butter Collective Ryan Wijayaratne explained what the exhibition was about.

Could you tell us about the exhibition?

Slap is exhibition of around 220 handmade stickers drawn by artists from Asia, America and Europe, and is a part of the Con Artist Collective
– an art collective located in New York. It's a travelling, growing exhibition that adds more stickers to itself with each showing. The Hot Butter Collective was psyched to host it and also have such an awesome location in the Rv8y Stvdio Gvll3ry. We were able to add around 25 local stickers into the show, which means that Sri Lankan artists will be on display in its next showing in New York in October & Singapore early next year.

Who are the local artists who’ve exhibited?

We’ve had Ruwangi Amerasinghe, Avisha De Saram, Neesha Fernando, Shamanthi Rajasingham, Minal Wickrematunge, Geshany Balder, Shanika Perera, Zak Helm, Sunara and Kavan Balasuriya amongst others who’ve exhibited their stickers.

What is the Con Artist Collective?

The Con Artist Collective is an art collective that I work for based in New York. It's a collective of around 400 artists of varying disciplines that work together in a shared space and put out a new show every 3 weeks. Con Artist along with Villains, a collective in Singapore, are mentors to the Hot Butter Collective.

What is the Hot Butter Collective?

The Hot Butter Collective is identified as a Sri Lankan multidisciplinary arts collective, which was formed early this year by Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke, Natasha Thompson, Jonathan Wijayaratne and myself. With the first show we did we were trying to break down the traditional art show opening scene in Sri Lanka, we wanted to make it more than just staring at a wall and having a glass of wine. 'In Space' was all about immersing the viewer in the work. For this particular show we were interested in displaying a form of art that barely exists in Sri Lanka. Grafitti and street art is seen more as vandalism here, while it's seen as art overseas, and by having this show, along with the ones we're planning in the near future, we'd like to change that perspective.

Until when will the exhibition be held?

Slap: Adhesives & Egos will be held until July 31, from 9am – 5pm, at the Rv8y Stvdio Gvll3ry, located at 61/5, Ward Place, Colombo 07.

For further information about the exhibition, please do search for ‘Slap: Adhesives & Egos [Sri Lanka]’ on Facebook.

By Sarah Kellapatha
Photographs courtesy Hot Butter Collective