• A conversation with Irushi Tennekoon

Irushi Tennekoon is an educator, animator, and illustrator who has carved a unique space in the world of storytelling, crafting narratives that centre around real-life heroes with brown skin and dark hair. Committed to challenging the lack of representation in mainstream media, Irushi’s work celebrates Sri Lankan identities and aims to inspire future generations with stories that resonate with their own experiences.

What began as a playful experiment, using just a stop motion app on her phone, soon evolved into a full-fledged artistic career. Today, Irushi’s animations have been showcased on significant platforms such as the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka, the ‘Women of the World Festival,’ and the ‘Dhaka Art Summit’. 

Her most acclaimed project, ‘Animate Her’ tells the stories of extraordinary Sri Lankan women, bringing their accomplishments to life through captivating stop motion and experimental animation.

The Sunday Morning Brunch had a chat with Irushi on her creative process and the broader impact of her work, which seeks to shift the narrative and highlight the inspiring contributions of women. Through her animations, Irushi continues to shape a more inclusive media landscape, one frame at a time. 

Following are excerpts: 

Can you tell us about how you got started with animation? Was this always part of your plan?

My background is actually in literature and I taught English for about 10 years before I really ventured into animation. 

I had always been illustrating as a hobby – working on small passion projects and even illustrating a couple of children’s books – but animation wasn’t on my radar until 2016. That year, I came across a stop motion app and started experimenting. It wasn’t planned; I just began creating little animation experiments at my study table with nothing more than my phone.

Later, I teamed up with two friends, and together, we made a short film about the 1983 Black July riots. It was an experiment at first, but we decided to submit it to a few festivals, and to our surprise, it ended up winning an award and being featured in exhibitions. That was when I realised the potential of animation to tell powerful, important stories, beyond the idea that animation was just for children or light-hearted content.

What was the turning point for you to decide to focus on storytelling through animation?

The short film on Black July was a big turning point. It was unexpected – the response, the way people connected to the story. Before that, I had thought of animation as something playful, maybe for children’s stories, but this project changed my perspective. It made me see how you can use animation to tackle complex, even traumatic topics.

Then, in 2019, I took part in an artist residency in Nepal, organised by the British Council. It was called ‘South Asian Heroines’ and we were 12 women artists from South Asia. We explored what it meant to be a heroine in this context, whether that meant capes and masks like in Western media, or something entirely different. 

Could they be ordinary women in our everyday lives? That residency really opened my mind to how we could represent ordinary stories as extraordinary. From there, ‘Animate Her’ was born.

Tell us more about ‘Animate Her’. What inspired the series and how did it come to life?

‘Animate Her’ came out of that residency in Nepal. After the residency, the British Council offered us funding to work on a small project. I still didn’t feel confident calling myself an animator at that point, but I decided to challenge myself. 

I aimed to interview 15 incredible Sri Lankan women and animate their stories. I had no idea how much work that would actually involve. In the end, due to time and funding constraints, I completed seven short films.

The series features women who were breaking boundaries in their fields – people like marine biologist Asha de Vos and IT expert Lakmini Wijesundera. I wanted to showcase women who were doing extraordinary things, especially in male-dominated industries, and tell their stories in a way that would inspire younger audiences.

How did you develop your animation skills? Did you have any formal training?

I’m completely self-taught when it comes to animation. I didn’t have any formal training initially. When I started, I just used a stop motion app, clay characters, and paper cutouts, taking photos frame by frame to create the illusion of movement. It was all very intuitive at first. Over time, I read a lot of books on animation, watched YouTube tutorials, and learnt through trial and error.

When I received funding for ‘Animate Her,’ I had a team, but none of us were professional animators – we were illustrators, architects, and cinematographers. We figured things out as we went along. 

Eventually, in 2022, I applied for a master’s programme in animation, which was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Now, I teach animation at the Academy of Design (AOD), which feels like a full-circle moment.

How did you select the women featured in ‘Animate Her’? Was there a particular criterion?

I looked for women who were doing things that were out of the ordinary, especially those who were pursuing careers in challenging, male-dominated fields. But honestly, the process was very personal. 

These were women I admired, people I felt comfortable speaking to, or who had been recommended to me through mutual connections. The selection was quite intimate because, during the animation process, we had to call them up for specific details or clarification, so it helped to have some kind of rapport with them.

How did you ensure the authenticity of their stories?

It all began with the interview process. I always started by asking about their childhood – some of their most striking memories growing up. Interestingly, many of their childhood experiences had some link to their later careers.

Then, the challenge was how to represent these women authentically. For example, when creating the puppets, we had to decide what skin tone to use, which was tricky because clay isn’t always made in the shades we needed. We experimented with different mixes of colours to find the right match. 

Similarly, we tried to be as accurate as possible with their clothing, whether it was recreating someone’s work attire or personal style, like Anya Ratnayaka’s story about the wetlands where we showed her in her casual workwear.

What did you find most challenging about creating ‘Animate Her’?

The biggest challenge was time and funding. Animation is incredibly time-consuming. Each film in the series was just 3-4 minutes long, but it took months of work. Juggling that alongside my teaching commitments and other projects was tough. 

But the creative challenge was in staying true to the stories while keeping them engaging for young audiences. Animation allows you to simplify complex ideas; like in Anya’s story, where I illustrated the wetlands as a sponge that absorbs water. It’s a scientific concept, but animation made it accessible.

How do you think animation enhances storytelling, especially for the kinds of stories you’re telling?

Animation opens up possibilities that other mediums can’t. Especially in documentary-style storytelling, animation allows you to imagine and visualise things in new ways. 

For ‘Animate Her,’ the women featured are all highly accomplished, but animation let me break down their stories into something digestible, even for children. You can simplify complex topics, like science or activism, and make them fun. And because animation is so visual, it can draw in people who might not otherwise be interested in these topics.

Are there any current projects you’re working on and what’s next for you? Do you have any new projects or directions in mind?

Yes, I’m currently working on a couple of exciting projects. I’ve set up a small home studio and I’m working part-time on various projects. One of them is an educational initiative focused on history, where we’re creating materials to help history teachers. It’s a pretty big project that will start next year, and I’m really looking forward to it. 

Another project involves tackling period poverty and challenging gender norms. These types of projects, close to home and with a focus on creating meaningful change, are ones I really enjoy.

In the future, I’d love to step out of my comfort zone and explore new stories, maybe travel to parts of the country I’m less familiar with and discover untold stories. There is so much potential for animation to connect people to these stories.

What do you love most about teaching animation and how do you inspire your students?

Teaching animation has been incredibly rewarding. One thing I’ve noticed is how deeply influenced many students are by Western or Eastern animation styles. I try to encourage them to open their eyes to their own surroundings, to locate themselves in Sri Lanka and South Asia, and to tell our stories. 

There’s so much untapped potential here and I’m hopeful that this shift in perspective is happening, albeit slowly. It’s been a mutually inspiring process for both me and my students.