In Search of Justice: In Conversation with Minal Naomi Wickrematunge

In January 2009, four armed men on motorcycles mysteriously assassinated Lasantha Wickrematunge, Chief Editor of the Sunday Leader (a well-known English newspaper in Sri Lanka). A journalist and an advocate for freedom of expression, Wickrematunge had been involved in a long-drawn battle with the Sri Lankan government due to his exposé and critique of the ruling parties. His death was one of the first to receive widespread local and international attention in a series of assassinations and disappearances of journalists caused by successive Sri Lankan governments over decades. 

Wickrematunge’s assassination has re-emerged as a topic of interest amidst political and economic fragility in Sri Lanka. Citizens—particularly during the 2022 countrywide protests against the then-presiding government—have demanded justice for journalists and media personnel who dared to speak up for the truth. Minal Naomi Wickrematunge, an artist, interior designer and the niece of Lasantha Wickrematunge, depicts the dedication and diligence of such journalists in a series of works she developed at the brink of the country’s crisis. In the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, she created a series on the journalist and poet Richard de Zoysa. He was murdered during Ranasinghe Premadasa’s regime in 1990, reminding us of another journalist, like her uncle, who was condemned for speaking the truth to power. Minal’s paintings play with the backdrop of a famous portrait photograph of de Zoysa, referencing various popular yet unproven assumptions about his character and political persona. 

In this conversation, Minal speaks about the ways in which she attempted to understand and capture de Zoysa as a mysterious yet familiar character. She also speaks of a mixed-media work she created in her neighbourhood with the Fearless Collective. Containing feminist activist messaging through visuals and text, the work is an indication of Minal’s commitment to seeking justice not just for her uncle but also for contemporary practitioners who crave freedom of expression in a corrupt regime. 

(Featured Image: "Richard de Zoysa: Lepidoptera" by Minal Wickrematunge, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.)

This conversation was recorded on 3 June 2022.

To learn more about Sri Lankan art that deploys forms of resistance, read Ankan Kazi’s interview with Sinthujan Varatharajah on the repressed histories of the Tamil Eelam experience, Anoli Perera’s work as it resists the male, colonial photographic gaze, and The Packet’s collaborative forms of working.

All images courtesy of the artist, unless stated otherwise.