Vishal Kumaraswamy
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.

ಒಕ್ಕೂಟ Okkoota introduced anti-caste curatorial practice interrogating social structure of caste with existing institutional hierarchies in Australia. I was engaged in drawing from the anti-caste movement and non-hierarchical ways of gathering to devise artistic interventions within contested spaces and investigate the process of building equity within individual-institution collaboration and partnership.

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.