Elena Carapetis was celebrated in one of the highest ways by her native state of South Australia as she earned the honour of being named Artist of the Year, an accolade she takes enormous pride in and considers a wonderful endorsement of her abilities.
Carapetis received one of the greatest honours of her career yet earlier this month when she was officially announced at the SALIFE Awards as the South Australian Artist of the Year, which she admitted came as quite a shock.
“I was genuinely surprised and touched to receive the South Australian Artist of the Year Award,” she told Neos Kosmos.
The actress, writer and director stated that she felt even more honoured given the calibre of artists in the state, citing her two fellow nominees in Thom Buchanon and Robert Hannaford as examples.
“I have always wanted to do the right thing by audiences, my community and the state during my career and I hope I have enriched the cultural life of this state,” Carapetis said.
“This award is a kind of affirmation of that, and it spurs me to continue to strive for excellence.”
The artist with roots from Greece and Cyprus shared her view that the award is in recognition of both her career in general as well as of her recent work.
She had earlier this year screened her debut short film ‘Blame the Rabbit’, which opened the Adelaide Film Festival and won the South Australian Screen Awards Grand Jury Prize, while she also landed a lead guest role in the third series of the TV show, ‘RFDS’.
Carapetis expressed that her passion is to tell stories driven by the lived experiences of women and people from marginalised backgrounds, such as her γιαγιάδες and παππούδες whose memory she honours with the themes of her work.
“Their stories deserve to be shared, told, and acknowledged,” the artist said.
She stressed her deep gratitude in being part of the SA Arts community and contributing to quality work, believing that “excellence is forged here, and excellence can be contained in stories about underrepresented, ordinary, unassuming people”.
“The Arts are for everyone, and the stories we see should reflect that. As a descendant of Greek and Cypriot migrants, it is a duty I don’t take lightly.”
