People.
Kuweni Dias Mendis is a Sri Lankan-Australian artist based in Australia since 1999. As a diasporic artist, her work reflects her diverse experience of culture and identity. Australia has deeply influenced her artistic practice, which focuses on raw mark-making and integrates regenerative practice, arts activism, and cultural facilitation. Kuweni uses ritual and ceremony as the source of her artistic manifestations, her creative inquiry into the pulsation of place.
Kuweni received a match funding grant from Creative Australia and the Australian Cultural Fund to produce the short film “Reverberations” + backdrop films.
Production.
Reverberations chronicles artist Kuweni Dias Mendis’ journey of belonging as a migrant woman of colour and culture in Australia.
This multisensory arts experience incorporates film, live music, movement, and visual arts in an exploration of identity and belonging, forged in spirituality.
Producer: Kuweni Dias Mendis
Director + Camera + Sound + Photography + Editor: Jude Kalman
Camera Assistant: Eliza Chambers
Music: Niru Mendis featuring Dinesh Subasinghe
1 x 10 min short documentary film
4 x 2:30 min performance backdrop films
Hero stills photography – promotional purposes
Impact.
“Reverberations” played at BEMAC on the 20th of October 2024.
BEMAC champion and elevates diverse artists, and their artistry, as creators of original work of the highest quality and relevance possible. For more information about BEMAC’s program of upcoming events, visit bemac.org.au/season/