'Sister Kali's Soul Temple – the Goddess of Death and Aretha Franklin' and 'Lecture in Conversation - an improved dialogue between Albert Camus and Lord Krishna'

Two related gallery installations dealing with notions of cultural authenticity and difference, and the politics of the art institution space. Group show, Go Between, was based around Alain Badiou’s concept of mediation. The 24 co-exhibitors included Jimmie

Durham, The Atlas Group, Bruce McLean. Dawood presented two related installations that interfaced with the space of the

museum and other exhibits. ‘Sister Kali’s Soul Temple’ filled the museum’s top floor. Set up as a quasi-nightclub, with vinyl

records by black female soul singers displayed alongside turntables and other club paraphernalia, the installation’s centre-piece

was a scaled-down version of the statue of the Hindu goddess Kali, from ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’. Juxtaposing

two female deities - Kali, and soul diva, Aretha Franklin –the work linked the appropriation by Hollywood of exotic female

archetypes, with the tradition of white pop performers expropriating black soul music, as parallel narratives of exploitation. In

'Lecture in Conversation' Dawood presented audio and slide documentation of a perfomative dialogue that had previously

occurred at the Henry Moore Institute, where Dawood played Krishna, alongside curator Peter Lewis as Albert Camus.

Both pieces evolved from Dawood’s sustained engagement with two key research themes: notions of cultural authenticity and

difference, and the intersection between live performance and installation as ways of opening up the politics of the art institution.

Thus, in Sister Kali, gallery invigilators became placed within the work as ‘DJs’ who kept the music playing.

Working with a series of collaborators, notably in ongoing dialogue with Bregenz’s curator, Peter Lewis, Dawood’s broader

research project produced several staged faux-historical dialogue performance pieces including ‘We Have Met the Enemy and

He is Us’, Redux Projects, London, (3.2.05 - 25.2.05); ‘The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse’ Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, (16.05.05

-29.05.05); I.C.A. ‘London in Six Easy Steps’ (23.08.05 – 28.08.05); ‘Lecture In Conversation’ at ‘Lila/Play’, Span Gallery,

Melbourne, Australia (8.03.06 – 1.04.06).