Lucas Odahara: The Master’s Shoes

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In the exhibition, titled The Master’s Shoes, the artist demonstrates distinct readings of established Western histories from a grounded contemporary perspective with a selection of recent works. The exhibition’s central video O Sapato do Mestre, Masthaharage sapattu (The Master’s Shoes) (2021) departs from a poem Odahara composed together with writer Indrakanthi Perera, using only Sinhala words of Portuguese origin, the language the artist grew up speaking in Brazil. The work exposes words such as diamond, compass, painting, heaven, pistol, shoes, and master, depicting a shared colonial scene between Brazil and Sri Lanka. Other works exhibited at Die Möglichkeit einer Insel, such as watercolor drawings, prints, and an installation of glazed ceramic tiles, pull together various historic references. They show Odahara’s understanding of dominance and authority, or the “master’s shoes” one wears, as something which has been passed along in the history of power. In the artist’s words: “The master’s shoes never remain empty.” The exhibition pursues an idea of the present that welcomes multiple narratives, including ways of reimagining them.