Impetus presents the artist’s spontaneous and sporadic response to the brutal violence and tumultuous social and political events in Sri Lanka between 1983 and 1989. This reactionary outburst of intense emotions, particularly through the medium of the woodcut print, foreshadows the recurrent themes and streams of philosophical rumination that have defined his oeuvre in the last thirty-odd years. The themes of decapitated heads, broken stupas and beastly human figures with contorted and elongated features become the visual devices that guide his intellectual inquiries and were first conceptualized in his years as a postgraduate student at the American University. These early works of the artist lay the ground for his subsequent contemplations and critique of Sri Lankan society and the breakdown of ethical and moral order in works such as Who Are You Soldier? and Shiva.