Bunker & border, 2021
T. Vinoja’s (b. 1991 in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka) textile-focused practice is based in the landscape—both its physical presence and its emotional weight. Since the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009), which lasted for over three decades, she has carried questions about the land and its people. The war may have ended, but its traces remain embedded in the soil, in memory, and in the everyday lives of people like Vinoja who grew up in the backdrop of unspeakable violence. This particular work is inspired by those wounded landscapes. To her, the land is not just a backdrop—it is a witness, a victim, and a silent bearer of trauma. Vinoja approaches the landscape as something that holds memory, loss, and grief, much like the human body. The work reveals a metaphoric connection between the land and the body through which she explores the ongoing relationship between trauma, memory, and place—emphasising how landscapes can hold wounds, just as people do.