I painted this for a live painting session at the Colombo Medical Congress. In our country Sri Lanka, there is a concept of 18 afflictions of the body being represented through rituals and masks. This mask is all about high fevers such as malaria. While extremely difficult to translate the general idea is along the lines of “A conflagration of fire”, a fever demon so to speak.
The task was to recreate the original mask on one side and an artistic representation on the other. While other high fevers exist, my interpretation focuses on malaria.
The left fiery side represents the classic high fevers of malaria.
On the right shows the triumph of Sri Lanka against a febrile threat that plagued the country for centuries. The fire has died out. Growing from this dead side is a plant - the Cinchona. This plant was used to derive quinine - a drug used to treat malaria.
This is good story. Like the contrasting side of sickness and healing
Thank you! :)
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Wow, this reminds me of the African mask that I have seem