Liminal Blues
Following the opening days (14th-17th April) of the exhibition, where the works of all participating artists appear in their smallest incarnation, the first Chapter, “The Other Side of Water: Laments of Time,” takes over the Podroom Gallery from 18th to 27th April.
Like water that relentlessly fills up the cup, conquering its shape in its entirety, artists in this cohort trace the boundaries of its geopolitical exploitation, in a procession followed by the constant sense of anxiety so innate in the third world.
Works of Lucas Odahara focus on poetics of water both in its individual and societal identification. His drawing series Nightwater presents objects that become connecting elements between night and day. His other work, O Sapato do Mastre, Masthaharage Sapattu (the Master’s Shoes), that was made in collaboration with Indrakanthi Perera, is a video departing from a poem playing with Portuguese and Sinhala words. Mate Ugrin captures the last launch of the ship at the “Third of May” Shipyard in Rijeka, Croatia in his work Porinuće (To Launch a Ship). Roshanak Amini and Juniper Foam’s Wherever I Am the Sky is Mine / Staring at the Sun looks into the fluctuation between an “illegal settlement” Karail and the rest of Dhaka (Bangladesh) and the force of organic social movements that, like water, find their way through imposed physical and social boundaries. In his work The Free World (Part I), Uroš Pajović explores geopolitical constructs of the King Fahd Causeway between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and its local and international role.
As we pause in front of these artworks we realize that we have suddenly become part of that world, estranged and imprisoned. This new reality with its expressive sensibility leaves us in turmoil. The urge to act remains with us. The change is imminent, or so it seems.
Liminal Blues is a tryptich consisting of the video work O Sapato do Mestre, Masthaharage Sapattu (the Master’s Shoes), the drawing series Nightwater, and the eponymous spatial installation, Liminal Blues. Nightwater and Liminal Blues are on display in Podroom Gallery 14th-16th April, 4th-7th May, and 16-19th May. The Master’s Shoes and Nightwater are on display 18-27th April.
“Comissioned for the publication ‘Scroll’ in partnership with Colomboscope 2021, O Sapato do Mestre, Masthaharage sapattu (the Master’s Shoes) is a video departing from a poem written in between, back and forth, Portuguese and Sinhala languages. In a few sessions of translations between Lucas Odahara and Indrakanthi Perera, the poem was composed using only Sinhala words of Portuguese origin. As the description of a scene, the poem deliberately use these loan-words in order to expose a Portuguese colonial landscape and use it as a meeting point, an intersection of both countries shared history of Portuguese colonialism through language.
“Nightwater is a drawing series of water glasses. The first drawing of the series is based on the glass of water that Odahara found next to his grandmother’s bed the morning after the night she passed away. Since then, the artist draws the water glasses he brings to bed before sleeping. For him, this object is a space of transition, a connecting element from one day to the next. Like the water separating continents, such as the oceans between Japan, where his grandmother’s family came from, and Brazil, where Odahara was born and raised. These glasses represent for him the preparation for a journey, the belonging one takes along as a companion or witness between night and day.”
“Nightwater is a drawing series of water glasses. The first drawing of the series is based on the glass of water that Odahara found next to his grandmother’s bed the morning after the night she passed away. Since then, the artist draws the water glasses he brings to bed before sleeping. For him, this object is a space of transition, a connecting element from one day to the next. Like the water separating continents, such as the oceans between Japan, where his grandmother’s family came from, and Brazil, where Odahara was born and raised. These glasses represent for him the preparation for a journey, the belonging one takes along as a companion or witness between night and day.”