8 Oct 2024
18:00 - 19:30
Pulping Power and Making Ghosts: Workshop and artist talk by Rajyashri Goody
On 8 October, Framer Framed hosts a reading, talk and workshop with artist Rajyashri Goody organised by the Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area of the University of Amsterdam.
Artist Reading and Talk: Do They Hesitate to Eat with You?
18:00–19:30
The talk is open to all, but please register here.
Dalit memory texts, autobiographies, poetry, and songs are overflowing with references to food and water, laying bare how the simplest of acts like sharing a meal or a drink with a friend is an impossible feat in the world of caste. Having been denied access to the written word or any tools for documentation for centuries, artist Rajyashri Goody is interested in what Dalit people today choose to record.
In her reading performance Do They Hesitate to Eat with You?, painful experiences of hunger, begging, shame, guilt and eating leftovers weave into lighter ones of feasting, joy, delicacies and happiness. Goody extracts and adapts Dalit memory texts into recipe booklets to be shared, to make visible, to ‘see’, everyday instances of caste violence, taking note of daily struggles and quiet acts of agency. The talk will be moderated by art historian Sanjukta Sunderason.
Workshop: Pulping Power and Making Ghosts
16:00–18:00
Limited places are available for this workshop. If you are interested, please email decolonialfutures@uva.nl
This workshop is an extension of Rajyashri Goody’s practice of making paper pulp from the book of Manu. An ancient Hindu text dating back 2000 years, the book has outlined rules, laws and horrific practices that deny basic rights to equality and human dignity to Dalit people – formerly called untouchable – by strict control of shelter, food, water, literacy, and physical contact.
Copies of the Manusmriti have often been burnt by Dalit leaders and activists as a symbol of outright rejection of caste. The act of burning this text is considered violent and punishable by those in power, but they turn a blind eye to the violence that this text prescribes. Goody chooses not to burn, but to pulp copies of the book, and make new paper out of them – a quiet gesture at a fresh start, but a recognition too, that in these new sheets, the ghost of Manu still lives, as caste continues to be so deeply embedded in the Indian social landscape.
Participants are invited to bring a text/book/piece of writing/art or printed copies of these on paper that they may have a complicated or difficult relationship with. During the workshop, they will be reading extracts aloud from these and discussing the narratives related to them. Consequently, everyone will be pulping these papers together, and making new plain sheets.
About
Rajyashri Goody lives and works in India and the Netherlands. Goody has a B.A in Sociology from Fergusson College Pune and an M.A in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK. She was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 2021-2023.
Goody’s practice explores lived experiences of hunger, hesitation, fear, feasting, joy, and courage. She draws upon literature, poetry, landscape and personal images to hold space for what Dalit people choose to record, for contemplating food and caste, the stomach and oppression.
Sanjukta Sunderason is an art historian working at the interfaces of visual art, political thought, and historical transition during 20th-century decolonization. She is the author of Partisan Aesthetics: Modern Art and India’s Long Decolonization. Sanjukta is Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Amsterdam and member of the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis. She is also the Humanities coordinator of the university’s new Research Priority Area Decolonial Futures.
This event is in English and free of charge. Donations are welcome.
This event may be photographed and filmed. Please let us know in advance if you prefer not to have your picture taken.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
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