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Burning

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In this photo, the integration of the ruins of the Jaffna public library is placed on a backdrop of a diasporic western home. 

The Jaffna public library in Sri Lanka is famed for once having vast collections of Tamil literature and history. However, this building was burnt down during the 25 year long civil war with majority of the books being destroyed beyond hope. In doing so, the re-imagining of the burning library and the imagining of the burning home is shown to help viewers understand the immense despair felt by the Tamil diaspora at the loss of their written histories. 

Akin to the loss of a home, the loss of the past is irreversible. This loss falls on the liminal boundary of the Sri Lankan Northern coast, as a means of representing how the memory of the pain is preserved as a continuation of the modern Tamil histories.

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* The photo of the Jaffna library was obtained from the site Groundviews.

 

 

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