A designer, world renown or discreet has one solid ambition; that in the tangible production of their thoughts and ideas they would change, alter or improve the life perspectives and ideals of those that they come across. Niloofer Ekanayake is one of Sri Lanka’s hidden treasures, having peaked as a "creative" while starting her new life in Germany. Having made an excursion back to Sri Lanka after eleven years of travel and high end living, this is her story, written in the words of a young designer who found her to be a silent but raging source of demiurgic energy.
Niloofer, currently residing in Germany caters to their blue blood clientele and works with elite demographic. She is living confirmation that exposure is the essence of great design and has subjected her mind to design and art development at many creative establishments. Initially taking the road as a fashion designer in Switzerland, Niloofer sought to educate herself in the technical workmanship of the field. She is a firm believer that perfect execution of an idea comes from painful observation of design detail and that the more awareness you hold of a craft or art form the more dynamic the end production becomes.
While residing in Sri Lanka, Niloofer attended Ladies College, Colombo and shared that it was her years there that birthed a heart of embarkation in the arts. A student known to have walked the school grounds never absent her sketchbook and pencil, Niloofer knew, even in her younger years that she would be at her happiest when she found herself in the middle of great art circles and rendezvous with designer personalities. In the early eighties her yearning spirit led her to study Archaeology and in that path to understand the elements of Architecture. Immersed in the creative industry with several design genres in her hands Niloofer Ekanayake has birthed many amazing spaces in interior design and has produced works of art that measure among the most beautiful in European villas.
Being a lead ceramic designer for one Germany's most exclusive and recognized tiling brands Niloofer has mastered the art and technique of mosaic. With her perfectionist eye she has created feature and decorative elements in many of her interiors using mosaic tiling, often portraying a storyline that is familiar to the clientele. When asked of customer satisfaction, her sweet response was that her interiors were personal, playful and permanently relaxing.
Like many in the creative field Niloofer has her favorite styles and eras, hence she finds illumination and insight in them. A stylist's art form is their precious comfort zone. They are captured by it and are committed to rebirthing the gestures of the adored period in modern spaces. Niloofer is very intimate with the Victorian era, and all its refined sensibilities. It was a time where English families chose to live very domestic and private lives; encouraging privacy and sharing grandeur only by extended invitation. The Industrial Revolution that formed during this time dramatically impacted the interiors, arts and culture of the Victorian era. With the increasing wealth of the middle class new avenues of residential design there before unknown and unfamiliar opened up to them and many bourgeois homes filled with decorative pieces that were till then only seen in the homes of aristocrats. It was an era of new cultural interests, prosperity and status. Victorian Interiors speak loudly that bareness in a space is a sign of poor taste. Niloofer has taken the best of the era and its attention to craft detail and has combined it with her own contemporary minimalist approach.
Niloofer prefers organic shapes to geometric ones, but said that all artwork and interior fixtures should flow in line with the existing space; it isn’t always about reinventing the wheel but sometime making subtle changes leading to perfection and applying features that complement the interior. She is a patient designer and is also a restorator. In the mid-nineties she started working on murals and wall paintings. Her work is similar to that of an expressionist, always intuitively perceiving realistic detail from her subject matter. Niloofer plays a significant part in the upkeep of her cities art forum and spends her leisure time painting spontaneously in art friendly groups.
Whimsical fancy is a proper descriptive of her work and each individual piece carries with it a certain gist of magic. Holding any viewer, whether it be field professional or crayon yielding babe, in awe of the creation and leaves them with a deep desire to know the creator.
One of her most significant interiors was recently completed in Mallorca, Spain; a residential design in the form of Spanish villa, in which Niloofer personally rendered and executed the tilling, walls and coloring of the space. It was here that this beautiful lady taught me that in order to be a successful designer one must be an all-rounder, willing to even pick up the pins; knowledge is power and that to be the creator of a space one should be in complete awareness of the project and be hands-on if need be. Niloofer's spaces are all touched by her artistic impression, directly by her hands in one form or the other, and this provides the space with an ambiance unique in character and godly in experience.
When asked about the current art, design and architectural movement in Sri Lanka, she smiled prettily and replied that Sri Lanka has a beautiful wave of creation subjecting itself majorly to the geometric alignment of the Bauhaus movement. However she believes that it also the prime period for young designers with fresh perspectives to step up to the task and provide more contemporary and Avant-garde spaces. As a lecturer in a leading design school in Germany, she is very supportive of the new faces in the industry and said she looked forward to seeing what this quirky generation would create to grace Sri Lankan lifestyle.
Niloofer expressed that every lead designer, earns a brilliant reputation by knowing how to handle their task team. She is personally very specific about whom she employs in her projects as it something she is very passionate about, and wants to surround herself and the project with those equally committed to seeing perfect completion. She has a face of compassion and whispered afterwards, that it wasn’t all about qualifications; that qualifying is a work in progress always, but that it is someone’s heart and soul that truly makes them eligible to design and partner with her. She is not a believer in branding, but says each person is their own brand and this fascinating diversity is something to be treasured and sought after; some are fortunate to have early exposure to the creative world from the society they are born into, but this doesn’t stop the impoverish from surprising you in their creative element. It is about how someone see's circumstances and moments in life. To an ordinary man or woman it would be only what they can see, but to an extraordinary individual it is always something more. Those that follow unseen things look for magical experiences and seek diligently for more than what is before them; the design field is a spring of opportunity. Creativity becomes the saving grace of the unusual identity.
Niloofer hopes to someday soon, see a space in Sri Lanka to completion and perhaps even exhibit her artwork in our galleries. She prefers to live in Germany as she has built herself a very comfortable and enticing lifestyle there, but said she wouldn’t mind temporarily working in the island given the right circumstances. Not only is this lady a complete creative wonder but she is also a mother. Having brought her young daughter to our rendezvous, she expressed to me that one can truly have it all. Her family is very supportive of her work and her daughter would sweetly quip in about how her mother was very involved in the artistic functions at her school and that their home was a constant explosion of one art project or another.
In concluding our interview i left her with farewells and hoping she would have a safe journey back home. I made my best attempt to assimilate as much as i could about her, all the while my mind asking why has such a person had never been spoken of before in our design circles. I felt very fortunate to have spent the evening in the company of such an inspirational personality and was touched by the sincerity of her character. She is a woman who has the whole world at her feet and is still so down to earth, , a discreet designer living the dream, uncorrupted by her fame but still moving in humility. Niloofer Ekenayke has altered my context and attitude towards allurement, the creative and becoming an exceptional designer; "there is no experience more precious than being human and feeling and in those expressions of your heart you will find all the inspiration you need."
Being a lead ceramic designer for one Germany's most exclusive and recognized tiling brands Niloofer has mastered the art and technique of mosaic. With her perfectionist eye she has created feature and decorative elements in many of her interiors using mosaic tiling, often portraying a storyline that is familiar to the clientele. When asked of customer satisfaction, her sweet response was that her interiors were personal, playful and permanently relaxing.
Like many in the creative field Niloofer has her favorite styles and eras, hence she finds illumination and insight in them. A stylist's art form is their precious comfort zone. They are captured by it and are committed to rebirthing the gestures of the adored period in modern spaces. Niloofer is very intimate with the Victorian era, and all its refined sensibilities. It was a time where English families chose to live very domestic and private lives; encouraging privacy and sharing grandeur only by extended invitation. The Industrial Revolution that formed during this time dramatically impacted the interiors, arts and culture of the Victorian era. With the increasing wealth of the middle class new avenues of residential design there before unknown and unfamiliar opened up to them and many bourgeois homes filled with decorative pieces that were till then only seen in the homes of aristocrats. It was an era of new cultural interests, prosperity and status. Victorian Interiors speak loudly that bareness in a space is a sign of poor taste. Niloofer has taken the best of the era and its attention to craft detail and has combined it with her own contemporary minimalist approach.
Niloofer prefers organic shapes to geometric ones, but said that all artwork and interior fixtures should flow in line with the existing space; it isn’t always about reinventing the wheel but sometime making subtle changes leading to perfection and applying features that complement the interior. She is a patient designer and is also a restorator. In the mid-nineties she started working on murals and wall paintings. Her work is similar to that of an expressionist, always intuitively perceiving realistic detail from her subject matter. Niloofer plays a significant part in the upkeep of her cities art forum and spends her leisure time painting spontaneously in art friendly groups.
Whimsical fancy is a proper descriptive of her work and each individual piece carries with it a certain gist of magic. Holding any viewer, whether it be field professional or crayon yielding babe, in awe of the creation and leaves them with a deep desire to know the creator.
One of her most significant interiors was recently completed in Mallorca, Spain; a residential design in the form of Spanish villa, in which Niloofer personally rendered and executed the tilling, walls and coloring of the space. It was here that this beautiful lady taught me that in order to be a successful designer one must be an all-rounder, willing to even pick up the pins; knowledge is power and that to be the creator of a space one should be in complete awareness of the project and be hands-on if need be. Niloofer's spaces are all touched by her artistic impression, directly by her hands in one form or the other, and this provides the space with an ambiance unique in character and godly in experience.
When asked about the current art, design and architectural movement in Sri Lanka, she smiled prettily and replied that Sri Lanka has a beautiful wave of creation subjecting itself majorly to the geometric alignment of the Bauhaus movement. However she believes that it also the prime period for young designers with fresh perspectives to step up to the task and provide more contemporary and Avant-garde spaces. As a lecturer in a leading design school in Germany, she is very supportive of the new faces in the industry and said she looked forward to seeing what this quirky generation would create to grace Sri Lankan lifestyle.
Niloofer expressed that every lead designer, earns a brilliant reputation by knowing how to handle their task team. She is personally very specific about whom she employs in her projects as it something she is very passionate about, and wants to surround herself and the project with those equally committed to seeing perfect completion. She has a face of compassion and whispered afterwards, that it wasn’t all about qualifications; that qualifying is a work in progress always, but that it is someone’s heart and soul that truly makes them eligible to design and partner with her. She is not a believer in branding, but says each person is their own brand and this fascinating diversity is something to be treasured and sought after; some are fortunate to have early exposure to the creative world from the society they are born into, but this doesn’t stop the impoverish from surprising you in their creative element. It is about how someone see's circumstances and moments in life. To an ordinary man or woman it would be only what they can see, but to an extraordinary individual it is always something more. Those that follow unseen things look for magical experiences and seek diligently for more than what is before them; the design field is a spring of opportunity. Creativity becomes the saving grace of the unusual identity.
Niloofer hopes to someday soon, see a space in Sri Lanka to completion and perhaps even exhibit her artwork in our galleries. She prefers to live in Germany as she has built herself a very comfortable and enticing lifestyle there, but said she wouldn’t mind temporarily working in the island given the right circumstances. Not only is this lady a complete creative wonder but she is also a mother. Having brought her young daughter to our rendezvous, she expressed to me that one can truly have it all. Her family is very supportive of her work and her daughter would sweetly quip in about how her mother was very involved in the artistic functions at her school and that their home was a constant explosion of one art project or another.
In concluding our interview i left her with farewells and hoping she would have a safe journey back home. I made my best attempt to assimilate as much as i could about her, all the while my mind asking why has such a person had never been spoken of before in our design circles. I felt very fortunate to have spent the evening in the company of such an inspirational personality and was touched by the sincerity of her character. She is a woman who has the whole world at her feet and is still so down to earth, , a discreet designer living the dream, uncorrupted by her fame but still moving in humility. Niloofer Ekenayke has altered my context and attitude towards allurement, the creative and becoming an exceptional designer; "there is no experience more precious than being human and feeling and in those expressions of your heart you will find all the inspiration you need."
No comments:
Post a Comment