Devika Bilimoria

Honours

SIT BOW EAST MILK POT HASTILY SING

Offerings is an accumulative durational performance and installation articulated as a ritual-like game of dice. The work is a live task-based procedure where I generate and enact countless ‘offering scores’ throughout an allocated duration. The scores are randomised attributes derived from seven categories that traverse both the secular and non-secular. Here, the materials, substances and gestures of the Hindu worshipping ritual pūjā are enfolded with the quotidian to incite offerings performed by my body, into a void.

Stimulated by randomisation, this chance-based work is an experimental practice of indeterminacy, play and disorientation. It attempts to commune with the porous haunt of embodied intra-cultural inscriptions, matter and entangled lineages—to reimagine what is given.

Website

www.devikabilimoria.com

Enquiries

devikabilimoria@gmail.com

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On a black floor an open-mouthed, brown-skinned body is wearing a tight orange short sleeve top and white bike shorts under a short white silk sleeveless dress crouched on their toes leaning back onto their hands with a wooden spoon covered in honey between their knees. — Devika Bilimoria, Offerings, VCA Grad Show opening night performance, 2022. Documentation by Renee Stamatis.

On a black floor is a random scattering of copper pots, a clay cup, raw rice, lines of honey, red kumkum powder, a small whole watermelon resting on a pot in the centre of the frame, two oranges to the left of the pot, some really ripe bananas, a coconut on the bottom edge of frame, and scattered white, yellow and orange coloured paper flowers. — Devika Bilimoria, Offerings, body, brass bell, bronze dice, metallic posca, copper pots, stainless steel spoons, clay cups, fruit, red kumkum, almond milk, rice, ghee, honey, flowers, songs, gestures, dimensions variable, 9 hours over 9 sessions, 123 offerings, 2022. Detail of installation after the final session at the VCA Grad Show.

A small pile of red kumkum powder on a black floor impressed by a food print, surrounded by grains of raw rice and thin lines of honey. — Devika Bilimoria, Offerings, 2022. Detail of foot-impressed kumkum powder in the VCA Grad Show installation.

A small black clay cylinder cup is resting on a black floor surrounded by red powder and rice. There is a hole in the side of the cup that oozes yellow ghee from the hole down the cup onto the floor. — Devika Bilimoria, Offerings, 2022. Detail of pottery made by the artist in the installation at the VCA Grad Show.

Cross legged on a black floor in the middle of a semi-circle of golden text is a cropped, brown-skinned body throwing bronze cubes of dice. On die is suspended in the air while the other has landed. The golden text that the person is seated within is divided into columns of choices that are numbered using dots next to each word, ranging between 2 dots to 8 dots. The first column to the left of the person is a column listing from the top, SILENCE, SING, HUM, MANTRA, TONE, BREATH, NOISE. The column next to that lists CLOSE EYES, BACKWARDS, LINGER, OPEN MOUTH, HASTILY, NO HANDS. The moving close to the centre of the semi-circle it its written POT, HAND, SPOON, CUP. The next column is cut by the frame of the image, what is legible are the words GHEE, RICE, MILK, FRUIT. The image shows parts of the text continuing in the semicircle around the person’s body, but the eye meets the edge of the photo. In front of the person is a small notebook and pacer as well as a small hand brass bell. Behind the person is a pile of fruit, bananas, coconuts, oranges and apples, and a bag of basmati rice. — Devika Bilimoria, Offerings, 2022. VCA Grad Show opening night performance. Documentation by Renee Stamatis.

A wide front on image of a white cube studio that has black flooring rolled out of the cube into the open space of the hall. The black rectangular flooring is covered messily in some sense of random order with copper pots, stainless steel spoons, clay cups, fruit, red kumkum, almond milk, rice, ghee, honey, flowers. This studio is centre frame, where the ceiling and the wooden floor can be seen along the side of the black rectangular flooring. On each edge of the protruding black rectangle with colourful random objects is a line of four or five knee high timber stools. On either side of this installation are two identical white cubed studio that are empty except for a few paintings on the wall. — Devika Bilimoria, Offerings, body, brass bell, bronze dice, metallic posca, copper pots, stainless steel spoons, clay cups, fruit, red kumkum, almond milk, rice, ghee, honey, flowers, songs, gestures, dimensions variable, 9 hours over 9 sessions, accumulating 123 offerings, 2022. Installation documentation after the final session in the VCA Grad Show.

A white sleeveless dress and white bike shorts are stained in red splotches as they hang on a white wooden coat hanger from small silver rectangular clamps that are holding the shorts up. The backdrop is white. — Detail of attire worn in Offerings after the final session at the VCA Grad Show, 2022. Silk top, polyester shorts and materials traces of kumkum, almond milk, ghee and rice from 9 hours of performing over 9 sessions, accumulating 123 offerings.

Arthur Nyakuengama

Caeylen Fenelon-Norris

Christy Chudosnik

Devika Bilimoria

Eleanor Newbound

Jackson Mclaren

Mardi Denham-Roberts

Thomas Retallack

Veronica Charmont

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which our campus is situated, the people of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung, who have created art, made music and told their stories here for thousands of generations. We also acknowledge and extend our respect to the Traditional Owners of all lands on which our work is viewed, shared and enjoyed, and to all Elders, past, present and emerging.

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