University of NonDualism, Frieze LIVE

Dawood is interested in the idea of advaita, or non-binary thinking. Thinking through where the body and fabric become architecture, and where architectural space is always a stage in waiting for human performativity, Dawood’s new commission draws on the legacy of Bangladeshi Modernist architect Muzharul Islam (1923 - 2012) to create an adaptable stage set that is activated through performance.

Dawood’s interior functions somewhere between architecture and tapestry. In turn, costumes by Priya Ahluwalia become an extension of the architectural and fabric elements of the setting, so that geometric lines continue across dancers and ripple as they move within the space, choreographed by Adrienne Hart. A new score by patten layers sounds, examining the influence of Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore on Muzharul Islam, but also how Tagore informed the later more spiritual work of Alice Coltrane.