Sri Lankan textile-led fashion designer Ruwanthi Gajadeera presented an original cyanotype to King Charles III on Wednesday at a garden party marking the 125th anniversary of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship.
The work, titled එක මවකගෙ දරුවෝ (Eka Mawakage Daruwo, Children of One Mother), was presented at the Victoria League’s house in Bayswater, west London, during a gathering attended by the League’s trustees and members, Commonwealth delegates and High Commissioners, including Nimal Senadheera, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, as well as students resident at the house.
The artwork takes its title from Sri Lanka’s national anthem and centres on an idea of shared belonging across ethnic and religious differences. The phrase “Children of One Mother” suggests that people can be understood as children of one mother, whether that mother is interpreted as the land, the island or humanity. Gajadeera extends that idea to the Commonwealth through a composition incorporating the national flowers of all 56 Commonwealth member states.
The flowers are arranged around a crown motif containing the endangered High Brown Fritillary butterfly. The combination brings together national identity, the Commonwealth and the natural world within a single work, while retaining the hand-produced character of the artist’s practice.
Gajadeera drew each flower by hand, sensitised the paper herself and exposed the print using sunlight alone. The characteristic blue of a cyanotype is created through a photochemical reaction to light rather than through applied dye or pigment. The process produces no toxic waste, reflecting an environmental discipline that also informs her wider work.
The presentation comes as Gajadeera continues to develop her studio practice in London through InnovationRCA, the Royal College of Art’s venture accelerator, after completing an MA in Fashion at the College. She also works as a facilitator at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin through Circle U., the European university alliance, focusing on art and science research-creation.
King Charles III is patron of the Victoria League. During his visit, he spoke with students living at the League’s house and unveiled a plaque.
John Steel KC, chairman of the League’s trustees, told the gathering: “Your leadership of the Commonwealth we consider to be of incredible importance. So do all the nations of the Commonwealth.”
The presentation comes ahead of the King’s planned travel to Antigua and Barbuda in November for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where he will attend in his role as head of the Commonwealth.
For Gajadeera, the work also reflects the wider direction of a practice rooted in material processes and questions of environmental and social responsibility. Her work combines handloom weaving rooted in Sri Lankan tradition, natural dyeing and cyanotype, examining how material practices can carry a sense of place, history and responsibility.
Gajadeera is the first South Asian to win the Taiwan Fashion Design Award, which she received in 2021. She was also Runner-Up at the Redress Design Award 2023, described as the world’s largest sustainable fashion competition. Her London-based practice continues to bring together textile traditions, sustainable processes and research across art and science.
