Sankar Nadeson

Sankar Nadeson’s Pavement transports viewers into a game-like ritual environment that intertwines personal narrative with the formalism of Masonic ceremonial space. Drawing from his Indian diasporic experiences and over 20 years of immersive research within Masonic Orders, Nadeson delves into themes of power, identity, race, and belonging. As both artist and protagonist, Nadeson activates the gallery floor with a mesmeric checkerboard, on which he positions Masonic relics, regalia, and furniture from the University of Melbourne Lodge No. 171. This act of re-appropriation creates a rupture in conventional Masonic practices, ushering in a vision of freedom from the constraints of oppressive dualities, where the boundaries between play and ritual, art and ceremony dissolve.