Shwan Dler Qaradaki
Halo of Shame
The Skylight Hall
03.04.—18.05.2025
«Language as the culture is the collective memory bank of a peoples’s experience in history. Culture is almost indistinguishable from the language that makes possible its genesis, growth, banking, articulation and indeed its transmission from one generation to the next.» (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind)
Loss of language is a common consequence of occupation, displacement, and flight. In the exhibition Halo of Shame, Shwan Dler Qaradaki examines how the ongoing political suppression of his mother tongue Kurdish has influenced his artistic work. What visual languages are available to a Kurdish artist? Through immersing himself in Western classical art and Islamic miniature painting, Qaradaki has developed a visual world that lies between East and West, past and present, object and subject. He seeks a decolonial visual language that can accommodate complex layers of identities and experiences.
Art offers a form of expression that differs from verbal language. It offers a means to convey anger and grief over the loss of language and cultural identity. Halo of Shame is not just a reflection on loss, but also an attempt to reclaim dignity and voice. The project aims to break down the boundaries between language and image, text and drawing. Through this breakdown, Qaradaki seeks to restore the Kurdish language and deepen the understanding of Kurdish identity and cultural heritage.
The exhibition project Halo of Shame is made up of two parts. The exhibition in The Skylight Hall features 33 large-format watercolour drawings, each representing a letter of the Kurdish alphabet. For the second part, Qaradaki will hold a screening of four short films at Cinemateket in Oslo on April 6 and 7.
The podcast En Aura av Fornedrelse (Halo of Shame), which is an eight-episode series where Qaradaki engages in conversations with various Norwegian and international experts on language, history, politics, and art, will also be launched in connection with the exhibition project. We invite you to an artist talk on Wednesday April 9 in Kunstnerforbundet.
Shwan Dler Qaradaki (b. 1977 in Kurdistan) studied at the Suleimani Institute of Fine Arts in Kurdistan, Iraq, and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, where he is currently a PhD research fellow at the Art and Craft department. He has had solo exhibitions at Bærum Kunsthall, Luleå Konsthall, Oslo Museum, Galleri LNM, Kunsthuset Kabuso, and Tegnerforbundet, among others. Qaradaki has also participated in various group exhibitions, including the Autumn Exhibition (2020), as well as at Østfold Kunstnersenter, Oppland Kunstsenter, the National Museum, Kristiansand Kunsthall, and Spriten Kunsthall. Qaradaki’s films and video works have been screened at numerous international festivals, including Human Rights Watch in New York, Rencontres Internationales in Paris, and Tromsø International Film Festival. He has received several awards and grants, including the Oslo City Art Award, the Norwegian Arts Council’s Newcomer Award, and the Kistefos Art Prize (The Høstutstilling Prize).
The exhibition project is supported by the Program for Artistic Research and Development (through HK-Dir) at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Listen to the podcast En Aura av Fornedrelse on Spotify.
Read more about the project on Research Catalogue.