Recent



Godhadi (Abhaya Rajani, Rajani Kadam, Satyawati Kadam, Sugandha Kadam), with Sam McNeil
Labour of Protesting: anti-caste lineage


July 26 - August 06 2023


Labour of Protesting: anti-caste lineage
Group exhibition

Ladder Space presents Labour of Protesting: anti-caste lineage by Godhadi. The ignited efforts of an accumulated desire to investigate, acknowledge and reveal the collective marginality of proud Dalit feminists. The exhibition is a negotiation between suppressed memories of shame, an unfolding of Dalit care through allegorical materiality, healing through acts of making, and a determination to resist the centuries-old oppressive injustices that pervade every dalit body.

The spectator is invited to be immersed in a conversation and allegorical exchange about caste oppression. Connecting with the tenderness of ‘Godhadi’ (Maharashtrian quilt) woven by late artists Satyawati Kadam and Sugandha Kadam, the uncooked spices made by artist Rajani Kadam as a reminder of the socio-political, diplomatic lines which divide the skies and lands. The values of protest chants echo across and beyond the space of knowledge. A glimpse into a recent journey in the documentary film Rakhan made by Sam McNeil and Abhaya Rajani where the Kharat family and their goats take us through the changing social and physical landscape of their lives in a small village of Sindhudurg, Maharashtra.

Abhaya Rajani’s hands, fingers and each nerve have been pugnaciously engaged in the process of striking against the Brahmanical and patriarchal violence through blue anti-caste threads. The labour of the marginalised once again finds its way to being concealed, invisible, in the veins of threads, transported from London to Copenhagen. Godhadi and Ladder Space will be seeking to construct a safe space of anti-caste solidarity.

Godhadi is a collective hosted by Abhaya Rajani, a London-based Dalit queer feminist artist along with the India-based artists, Rajani Kadam, the late Satyawati Kadam, and the late Sugandha Kadam. Through dalit lineage and their work which was considered womanly duties, they are dreaming to reimagine their labour in a contemporary art context. They are invested in constructing safe spaces through their collective transdisciplinary practices to resist centuries-old oppressive injustices of Brahminical patriarchy.

The exhibition is supported by The Council for Visual Arts, Vesterbro Lokaludvalg and Copenhagen Municipality.


For a conversation on casteism between Abhaya Rajani, Shivani Patel and Aaliah Qureshi, see Harsh Light by A Particular Reality and Bloc Projects.

For information on caste discrimination see International Dalit Solidarity Network.


Ladder Space


Photo: Dominik Morgaś.


Photo: Laurits Honoré Rønne, A-sign planned and welded by Laurits Honoré Rønne.

About

Ladder Space is an eclectic exhibition space that encapsulates what surrounds it. In a stable building at Halmtorvet – which also functions as a studio collective – exhibitions and performances manifest, in addition to activities of more processual, temporary, and communal character.

The exhibition space strives to resemble how we encounter the world today, as leaping and association-driven, where we scroll through a reality that is intertwined, paradoxical and interchangeable. Instead of curating the exhibitions based on a single idea or a set frame of references or preferences, we examine the chaotic and paradoxical concept of housing many different practices under one roof and let themes and associations flow freely and weave in and out of the different activities. The eclectic becomes a tool to generate new meanings, understandings and coherence and use this openness towards the chaotic as a method to create new forms of dialogue and add nuance and complexity to the activities and conversations that take place in Ladder Space.


Contact

Address:
Halmtorvet 11D, DK-1700 Copenhagen

Mail:
ladder.exhibition.space@gmail.com

Social media:
Instagram

Opening hours

Open on occasion. Please refer to the specific exhibition.

Organisers and curators

Anne Sofie Skjold Møller, Anders Aarvik.

Assistance of additional members of Halmtorvet 11A-F studio collective.

Support

Copenhagen Municipality, Vesterbro Lokaludvalg, Snabslanten.

Support has been granted for specific activities and include Vesterbro Lokaludvalg, Snabslanten, Rådet for Visuel Kunst, Statens Kunstfond, Nordisk Kulturfond, Dansk Tennisfond, The Polish Embassy, Refshaleøen.

Press

Material