It's happening! After much uncertainty involving ebbing, flowing, coming together, cache-ing, making alone, creating together, and majorly reflecting, the House of kal is ready to (safely) open its doors to you in Colombo at the Collective of Contemporary Artists (33 Gothami Road, Colombo 8).
The House of kal Colombo invites you between the 20 October - 26 October, 2.00 - 8.30 pm to share and learn - introducing Sabeen Omar, Hema Shironi Joseph, Vasi Samudra Devi, Vicky Shahjehan, Chathuri Nissansala and Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody, curated by Sandev Handy, Sakina Aliakbar and our many guests & friends from the House of Kal.
a co-created shared space bringing together works by the House of Kal Colombo residents, The Many Headed Hydra’s “Rituals” soft architecture by Emma Wolf Haugh, and offerings from the kal RITUALS publications as well as traces of drawing and writing workshops, field visits and invited guests and friends.
It is inherently queer and feminist to flatten heirarchy and democratise a space. Since this May, we have been offering collective care, staying with the mundane and the present, rupturing and repairing, un-making, re-considering, and thieving. We welcome you to climb down into our space and meet us where we are.
To make our gatherings as safe as possible amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we kindly ask everyone to join with a mask. Food will only be served outside in the courtyard.
DAY 1
Wed, 20 October 2021
5.00 pm — RECEPTION
House of kal Colombo Opening
With resident works on display, on-going activities and refreshments.
7.00 pm - 8.00 pm — PERFORMANCE
Birth by Vicky Shahjehan, Chathuri Nissansala, Shiromi Subasinghe & R. Rasamma
(Invitation through registration only)
This performance recontextualizes how text constructs identity, matriarchy understandings of ‘healing’. Introducing mark-making within an intimate space, Birth is a ritual for unlearning the imperial sediments of the past and the present, necessary for imagining new futures.
8.00 pm - 9.30 pm — PERFORMANCE
proper sounds, improper sounds by Sakina Aliakbar/Sak’d
Buiding on the queer and feminist practices of worldbuilding, Sakina explores possibilities through sound and movement in non-binary and genre-mixing methods. The performance provides a safe space for one’s internal and external world on a dance floor.
DAY 2
Thurs, 21 October 2021
2.00 pm - 8.30 pm — OPEN HOUSE
House of kal Colombo Open House
With resident works on display, and on-going activities.
7.00 pm - 8.00 pm — TALK (ONLINE )
Nesting, Burrowing and Holding — Conversation with Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody.
A conversation between five theatre practitioners on survival, care and space making during a pandemic. Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody asks what it means to re-think the family, co-living and creating safe spaces that challenge patriarchal structures and accepted masculinities.
DAY 3
Fri, 22 October 2021
2.00 pm - 8.30 pm — OPEN HOUSE
House of Kal Colombo Open House
With resident works on display, and on-going activities.
6.00 pm - 7.00 pm — NARRATIVE CIRCLE
Porrutkal/ nineiwugal/ oorawugal/ inneipugal by Vicky Shahjehan
(Invitation through registration only)
How can one collect and make archaic memory tangible? Through a circle of narrations, Vicky invites you to tease out the memories, presences and identities embedded within a collection of objects/materials. Can the stories of objects and the circumstances of their existence simultaneously become stories of intimacy and interconnectivity?
Porrutkal/ nineiwugal/ oorawugal/ inneipugal is a meditation on memory and shared remembrance of healing. It is imagined as a series of interactive sessions that welcomes participants into a shared space of “Embracing and embodying your special self”.
7.15 pm - 8.15 pm — SCREENING AND DISCUSSION
What Kinda Trans Am I? — Animated Film by Vasi Samudra Devi and Keshiya Rayla Kaavyashri
Vasi and Keshiya discuss their animated film “What Kinda Trans Am I?” developed for Transfigure Lanka’s Trans/Queer Collaborations. A short animated film co-created by Keshiya Rayla Kaavyashri and Vasi Samudra Devi, two trans/non-binary artists under the idea of trans and queer liberation during the medical transition process which they are both undergoing simultaneously. The work is a call for self-determination of gender-diverse identities by both artists. The film is a look at the cis-heteronormative boxes into which trans people starting out on their HRT journeys are put under, from a cishet therapist having to evaluate them to tell them again that they are trans.
DAY 4
Sat, 23 October 2021
2.00 pm - 8.30 pm — OPEN HOUSE
House of Kal Colombo Open House
With resident works on display, and on-going activities.
5.00 pm - 7.00 pm — PERFORMANCE
இந்த நிலம் எனக்கு சொந்தமில்லை அம்மா (Mother this land is not ours) by Chathuri Nissansala
(Invitation through registration only)
The act of "play " resides within civilizations, cultures and also within archives. This interactive performance invites attendees to “play” and masquerade by becoming performers or taking on various personas. The performance interrogates various scenarios of imperial identity, remembrance, memorialization and nationalism by interplaying a series of cultural conundrums. Each scenario explores how one symbolically encounters the act of ‘forgetful remembrance’.
7.00 pm - 8.00 pm — RITUAL
Ritual of Changing Appearances by Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody
(Invitation through registration only)
Veena invites you to participate in a lighting ritual for meditations on the body and change. Light the candles over plaster Paris body casts meditate over the changes happing to the candles and the body cast.
DAY 5 Sun, 24 October 2021
2.00 pm - 8.30 pm — OPEN HOUSE
House of kal Colombo Open House
With resident works on display, and on-going activities.
11.00 am - 1.00 pm — PERFORMANCE
இந்த நிலம் எனக்கு சொந்தமில்லை அம்மா (Mother this land is not ours) by Chathuri Nissansala
(Invitation through registration only)
The act of "play " resides within civilizations, cultures and also within archives. This interactive performance invites attendees to “play” and masquerade by becoming performers or taking on various personas. The performance interrogates various scenarios of imperial identity, remembrance, memorialization and nationalism by interplaying a series of cultural conundrums. Each scenario explores how one symbolically encounters the act of ‘forgetful remembrance’.
3.00 pm - 5.00 pm — STITCHING CIRCLE
Talking Hands Circle, with works and offerings by Sabeen Omar and Hema Shironi
Hema and Sabeen have been talking, sharing stories and making work. They have an affinity for fabric which is closely tied to the history of the women in their families. In their collaboration, Talking Hands, both artists used a collection of cloth handkerchiefs as a medium to express fragments of their memories. Together, they have and will continue to create a body of work that creates a complex space for memory stories and the potential for craft in art. Hema and Sabeen will continue to work in the open studios and invite you to sit with them, share and sew.
6.30 pm - 7.30 pm — LECTURE PERFORMANCE
Artificial Women by Vasi Samudra Devi
(Invitation through registration only)
A lecture performance based on the real-life experiences by Vasi Samudra Devi and her interactions with the Sri Lankan trans community and the internalization of cishet language in constructing transness and queerness. The poem asks what truly constructs trans femininity, with the idea of artificiality (that being a mockery of the expression of trans identities and especially medical gender transition processes) and the focus on a gender binary being pushed onto gender diverse people through a very cisgender, heteronormative social lens. Vasi is in the end, happy to admit that she is artificial in the context that everything really is so, furthermore celebrating her HRT process in video form.
7.30 pm - 9.30 pm — PERFORMANCE
proper sounds, improper sounds by Sakina Aliakbar/Sak’d
Buiding on the queer and feminist practices of worldbuilding, Sakina explores possibilities through sound and movement in non-binary and genre-mixing methods. The performance provides a safe space for one’s internal and external world on a dance floor.
DAY 6
Mon, 25 October 2021
NO-OPEN HOUSE
6.00 pm - 7.00 pm — ONLINE SCREENING
What Kinda Trans Am I?
Vasi and Keshiya discuss their animated film “What Kinda Trans Am I?” developed for Transfigure Lanka’s Trans/Queer Collaborations. A short animated film co-created by Keshiya Rayla Kaavyashri and Vasi Samudra Devi, two trans/non-binary artists under the idea of trans and queer liberation during the medical transition process which they are both undergoing simultaneously. The work is a call for self-determination of gender-diverse identities by both artists. The film is a look at the cis-heteronormative boxes into which trans people starting out on their HRT journeys are put under, from a cishet therapist having to evaluate them to tell them again that they are trans.
DAY 7
Tues, 26 October 2021
2.00 pm - 8.30 pm — OPEN HOUSE
House of Kal Colombo Open House
With resident works on display, and on-going activities.
6.00 pm - 8.30 pm — READING GROUP (ONLINE )
Hold Everything Dear: Reading Group with Sabeen Omar and Sandev Handy (Online)
In his book Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance John Berger gets to the heart of things. In a collection of disarmingly poetic essays, he is able to give the political, a very personal context - creating a pathway for one to enter and engage. Sandev and Sabeen have chosen 3 essays from the collection that they would love to delve into with you. What does each of our survival and resistance look like when the night takes our plans away? With Berger’s words as a foundation, they would like to create space to hear your thoughts and feelings.
6.00 pm - 8.30 pm — CLOSING RECEPTION
House of Kal Colombo Open House Closing
With resident works on display, on-going activities and refreshments.
— Re-activation of Ritual of Changing Appearances
— Selected readings from Hold Everything Dear Reading Group
a language where yesterday and tomorrow are the same word. kal is co-initiated by Aziz Sohail and The Many Headed Hydra. The Houses of kal are curated and cared for collectively by Aziz Sohail, Fiza Khatri, Sandev Handy, The Many Headed Hydra with Sakina Aliakbar, Zahabia Khozema and the teams of District*School Without Center and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.
This trans*oceanic platform is a collaboration with Archive Books, COCA Collective Colombo, District*School Without Center, Goethe Institut Sri Lanka, Goethe Institut Pakistan, IVS Gallery Karachi, Zubaan Books and Colomboscope; supported by the Department for Culture and Europe in the Berlin Senate, Goethe Institut South Asia, the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, and ifa.
Team House of Kal Colombo: Chathuri Nissansala, Vicky Shahjehan, Vasi Samudra Devi, Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody, Hema Shironi Joseph & Sabeen Omar with curators Sandev Handy and Sakina Aliakbar.