LAMENT H.E.A.T.
Priyageetha Dia
The RYDER Projects, Madrid
- Title
- LAMENT H.E.A.T.
- Gallery
- The RYDER Projects, Madrid
- Year
- 2023
- Duration
- 14 min 15 s
- Format & Technical
Single-channel video (colour and sound), 4K, 16:9
- Contact
info@theryderprojects.com
- Priyageetha Dia, LAMENT H.E.A.T. (video still), 2023
LAMENT H.E.A.T explores the historical and socio-cultural narratives surrounding rubber plantations in Malaya, drawing connections to broader themes of resistance and memory. Integrating the concept of the 3rd_Space, it presents the rubber plantation as a complex, evolving site of economic production, social stratification, and cultural hybridity. Central to the installation is the adaptation of oppari, a Tamil lamentation practice performed by Dalits, reimagined through H.E.A.T (Hevea Errichal Automation Tech), a technological entity that performs oppari as an act of mourning and resistance. This integration serves as a critique of colonial exploitation and a speculative meditation on the potential for technology to empathise and memorialise non-human entities, serving as a medium for collective grief and remembrance.
Stills
Priyageetha Dia works with time-based media and installation. Her practice braid themes of Southeast Asian labour histories, speculation of the tropics, and ancestral memory meeting machine logics. Through archival and field research, she explores nonlinearity and practices of refusal against dominant narratives.
Recent exhibitions include 4th Bangkok Art Biennale (2024); Manifesta 15, Barcelona (2024); 60th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2024); Arts House, Melbourne (2024); Diriyah Biennale, Saudi (2024); Frieze Seoul (2023); Singapore Art Museum (2023); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kerala (2022); La Trobe Art Institute, Australia (2022); National Gallery Singapore (2020); and Art Science Museum, Singapore (2019). She was an artist-in-residence at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore in 2022 and the SEA AiR—Studio Residencies at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands in 2023.
Related galleries
The RYDER Projects
- Address
- Travesía de San Mateo, 4, 28004, Madrid, Spain
- Phone
- 669 33 65 50
- info@theryderprojects.com
- Website
- www.theryderprojects.com
The RYDER Projects is a contemporary art gallery founded in East London and currently based in Madrid, Spain. With a programme developed by an in-house curatorial team, the gallery works closely with artists to develop exhibitions grounded in critical theory, alongside public events and editorial content. Located in a former ham factory in the Tribunal district of Madrid, The RYDER remains committed to fostering international dialogue through collaborating with artists, curators and cultural institutions. The primary interest of the gallery are practices built from conceptual tools suited for the growing complexities of our time.