About
The I Am Project is a long-form audio documentary and portraiture series that captures the lives, voices, and memories of Sri Lankan elders across Sri Lanka and, more recently, its global diaspora. Rooted in the oral tradition, these intimate sound portraits serve as living archives — testimonies to a generation whose stories risk being lost to time.
Spanning over a decade, the project explores themes of memory, reconciliation, conflict, kinship, and belief. At its core is a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to be Sri Lankan? The answers emerge not as a singular truth, but as a polyphonic chorus-revealing a nation shaped by its pluralities of language, ethnicity, faith, and lived experience.
The voices featured range from the eminent-such as Judge Christopher Weeramantry and trade unionist Bala Tampoe – to everyday citizens like Veerakathy, a tobacco farmer from Jaffna, and Haniah Sultan Bawa, a history teacher from Galle. Many of those recorded in the project’s early years have since passed, making these recordings both memorial and living legacy.
Since its launch the / Am Project has exhibited in galleries and public spaces in Sri Lanka and internationally, including Yorkshire Contemporary, United Kingdom (formerly The Tetley), the Neuberger Museum of Art, NY and the Edinburgh Arts Fringe Festival. It has been reviewed by the New York Times and most recently cited by Shehan Karnatilaka as an inspiration for his Booker Prize winning novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.
In its latest iteration, launched in October 2023, the I Am Project unveils a new website and an expanded scope-now featuring elders from the Sri Lankan diaspora, recorded by a new generation of young Sri Lankan artists. This intergenerational exchange is central to the project’s ethos: that by listening deeply to the voices of our elders, we can cultivate empathy, understanding, and solidarity across communities fractured by history, yet connected by shared futures.
23 May 2023