A Reading Path Down a Rabbit Hole: Osheen Siva

To get to know the artist better, here are curated, in-depth interviews and profiles with Siva.

Seen

Few people know this, but Siva also runs an Instagram page called @tamil.veedu (which translates to Tamil house), a visual archive of Tamil experiences, from Dalit feminist authors such as P. Sivakami, who advocated for anti-caste representation, and women such as Annai Meenambal Shivaraj, the first Scheduled Caste woman president of the All India Scheduled Castes Federation started by Dr. Ambedkar in 1942. The page also highlights Tamil comics, typography, and architecture.

A self-taught illustrator and muralist from Thiruvannamalai, India, Osheen Siva imagines a brave new world of decolonized dreamscapes and narratives of queer power.

Bonington Gallery

Siva’s work is rooted in both their Dalit and Tamil heritage. The etymology of Dalit is traced to the root dal in Sanskrit which means split, break, crack or crushed.1 Dalits are among India’s most marginalised citizens, condemned to the lowest echelons of society by caste hierarchy. Karuppu carries associations with evil in Hindu mythology and is often used in reference to the lowest caste of ‘untouchables’.2 Siva navigates the complexities of Dalit histories, offering a powerful exploration of identity amid personal and collective resistance, in the pursuit of liberation from local and global oppressions.