I remember. 

A simple gesture, and a profound act of resistance. 

a river is a witness is a solo exhibition of works by Jagath Dheerasekara: a multi-disciplinary artist who, born in Sri Lanka, was forced to flee the island in the early 1990s due to his political and human rights activism— a result of the 1987-1990 Southern Uprising. Outside the minds of witnesses, events of that period remain largely undocumented— erased from official history records, silenced in public discourse, and left unspoken by many who lived through it. But memory, too, leaves a trace.  

In this exhibition, Dheerasekara takes on the role of the archivist: someone who documents, records, and recalls memories for safekeeping, collecting and categorising the intangible and the almost-lost. Only the archive at hand is not one of official record: his is an archive of traces, silences, and residue. Of memory and emotion, of scars and fragments, of stories passed or carried within. These are the remnants that endure. 

The river emerges as a powerful metaphor. It, too, an archive and a repository. Of something that courses, unceasing, through past and present, from generation to generation. A witness to time, and a carrier of what lies beneath. This exhibition reminds us to reflect on what is lost when histories are buried, but also to take note of that which persists — which refuses to be forgotten – and the value that lies within that ceaseless, simple, resilient gesture. 

a river is a witness invites us to reflect on the importance of remembering complex histories— to bear witness, to honour those affected, and to challenge the forces that seek to bury them. To insist: I remember. 


Jagath Dheerasekara is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work is informed by personal and collective memory, the ongoing impacts of colonisation, and the fragility of the principles of humanity. Born in Sri Lanka, Dheerasekara was forced to flee the island due to political persecution in Sri Lanka’s 1987-1990 Southern Uprising. He was granted political asylum in France, unable to return to Sri Lanka until the mid-1990s. In 2008, Dheerasekara moved to Australia with his family, and now lives on Gundungarra Country in Western Sydney.

Dheerasekara is a recipient of grants from the Amnesty International Human Rights Innovation Fund and Creative Australia and has presented work in several solo and group exhibitions. He has undertaken residencies, as an artist and curator, in several institutions including Bundanon Art Museum; UTP; ArtsHouse; and Museum of History NSW, and has work held in both institutional and private collections, including the Campbelltown City Council Art Collection; the Museum of Australian Photography; the State Library of New South Wales; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; and the Liverpool City Council Art Collection.