A significant part of Pala Pothupitiye’s practice has been dedicated to manipulating and re-appropriating historical maps. He was drawn to studying maps after moving to Colombo and coming across them in English, and he gradually began seeking out old maps of the cities, ports and forts of Sri Lanka, including copies of maps in archives in Europe that were created during Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial periods. He sees such historical documents as tangible objects of colonial power, and draws a direct correlation of the colonial process of division and containment, separating local people from their land, and the devastating demarcation of lands on ethnic grounds that occurred in the subsequent Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009). Pothupitiye adds a number of recurring motifs; embellishes the muted colours and cartographic lines with colourful illustrations; and abstracts the lines that delineate hard boundaries of ownership.