ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala – Public Program
Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy
Various dates
Presented by Arts House
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
521 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne
Federation Square
Swanston & Flinders St,
Melbourne
Assistance Animal
Audio description
Auslan Interpreting
Companion Card
Quiet Space Available
Tactile Tours
Wheelchair AccessibleJoin us for tours, talks, screenings and more to explore the depths of ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala.
All tickets are free and all are welcome.
ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ Ottige – Curator Tour and Communal Meal
ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ Ottige (together) further espouses the egalitarian principles that inform the exhibition and invites you to join in an act of inter-dining, a radical gesture employed to erase social hierarchies and nourish the body and mind in a casual setting. The dishes in the meals are informed by the artist Jagath Dheerasekara and the socio-geographic context of his native Sri Lanka. The event will start with a curator-led tour of the exhibitions and culminate in the communal meal.
Saturday 6 April, 12pm
Film Program Screening – Federation Square
Join us at Federation Square for a special screening of films, marking Dalit history month. This triple bill of short films spans surreal absurdist comedy, adolescent love stories and poetic personal narratives.
Saturday 6 April, 5.30pm
Tickets not required. More info.
Presented by in Partnership with Federation Square.
Film Program and Artist Talk
Join curator Vishal Kumaraswamy and artists Peter Waples-Crowe and Subash Thebe Limbu as they reflect on shared themes and experiences of history in their exhibiting works of ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala, along with a special screening of the Indigenous futurist films Ningwasum and Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous.
Thursday 11 April, 6:30pm
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Performance of Elyas Alavi’s ALAM/ عَلَم and Curator Tour
Join a curator-led tour of ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane and ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala with an expanded performance of poetry and sound by Elyas Alavi, Aarti Jadu and collaborators. Introduction to the work by the artist and curator.
Lead vocalist – Aarti Jadu
Accompanying vocals – Archie Barry, Blu Jay, Kia Zand and Saieesh Shanmugarajah
Saturday 13 April, 12pm
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Artist Talk
Curator Vishal Kumaraswamy and artists Elyas Alavi and Sajan Mani speak to socio-cultural specificities and the role of language, geography and faith in their works exhibited in ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala.
Thursday 18 April, 6:30pm
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Performances of Sajan Mani’s Caste-pital
Sajan Mani’s Caste-pital thinks through the various registers of language by translating oral poetry and song by Poykayil Appachan into an expanded drawing performance.
Saturday 20 April, 11.30am – 3.30pm, with curator introduction at 12pm
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Tuesday 23 April, 2pm – 4pm
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Curator tour and performance of Sajan Mani’s Caste-pital
Join Vishal Kumaraswamy for a curator-led tour of ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane and ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala and stay to witness Sajan Mani’s final durational performance of Caste-pital.
Saturday 27 April, 1pm – 3.30pm
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ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala expands on the contextual framework of ಒಕ್ಕೂಟ Okkoota, held at Arts House in April 2023.
ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala is an expression of Arts House’s Equity—Builder.
About the artists
Vishal Kumaraswamy is an artist-curator working across text, film, sound, performance and computational arts. His practice draws from his Dalit heritage to investigate a range of critical concerns around caste, race and technology. His works have been shown at the Venice Biennale’s Research Pavilion, ARKO Art & Tech Festival, SITE Gallery Sheffield, Contemporary Calgary, HKW Berlin and the Rencontres d'Arles 2023.
Vishal has been an artist in residence with the US Consulate General Mumbai, Contemporary Calgary in Alberta, SAVAC Toronto, Vital Capacities videoclub UK, Onassis AiR and The Singapore Art Museum. Vishal is the founder of the international artist collective; Now You Have Authority through which he has curated exhibitions, residencies, and delivered workshops at the Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange Programme, Tanzfest Aarau and Sluice Biennial. Vishal lives & works in Bengaluru, India.
Curatorial statement
ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala responds to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s call to educate, agitate and organise by expanding the contextual framework to address complicated histories of migration & displacement, class, caste, indentureship, plantationcene and queer reclamations of socio-religious rituals.
In ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala, the book this exhibition borrows its title from, the author Devanooru Mahadeva employs metaphorical imagery to juxtapose the tenderness of Dalit imagination against the overwhelming brutality of lived experience. The book demands a sustained engagement from the reader and warrants multiple re-visits. This process of tying together the tenderness of trans-national artistic practices that are expansive in their presentation and encompass multiple contexts in ways that command your attention. Like ಒಕ್ಕೂಟ Okkoota, emerging, mid-career and established artists are presented on the same surface, one that is continuously reconfigured through the movement of bodies and histories through the entirety of Arts House. The flattening of hierarchies continues through several unconditional engagement opportunities over the course of the project for audiences across an exhibition, public program, talks, screenings, communal meals and multiple tours.
From the building’s exterior surfaces to the depths of its insides, ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala pulls the curtains back to reveal the churning of the institution’s insides as the program unfolds and leaves traces as divergent knowledge systems inhabit the spaces. Like the book, ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala gently demands multiple visits for efficient digestion.
Various dates
Presented by Arts House
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
521 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne
Federation Square
Swanston & Flinders St,
Melbourne
Assistance Animal Audio description Auslan Interpreting Companion Card Quiet Space Available Tactile Tours Wheelchair AccessibleImage credit: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst
Image description: A figure, shot from behind, sketches characters on a white wall.
