Nadia Odlum

For our final Kaldor Studio project, Nadia Odlum invited audiences of all ages to explore space, movement and perspective in All possible combinations. Expanding upon the systems-based approach of Sol LeWitt, the installation featured colourful, tessellating blocks, which could be reconfigured in boundless combinations.

Over eight weeks, All possible combinations transformed Kaldor Studio into a space for collaboration, problem-solving, joyful discovery and play. Zig-zagged lines encouraged children to explore, while interactive blocks compelled visitors to work together to solve the puzzle and flex their creativity. Through a series of hands-on workshops, Odlum welcomed visitors to create “books without words“ and contribute to the growing Kaldor Studio Library.

As part of the project, Nadia Odlum collaborated with Future Makers, the youth dance company for the Western Sydney-based Dance Makers Collective. The artist guided the group as they developed a choreographic response to the Making Art Public exhibition, culminating in a performance at the Art Gallery of NSW on 12 February, during Art After Hours. Audiences were intrigued by the performance, as the young dancers wove between exhibition “boxes”, investigating the Kaldor Archives through movement, and exploring the unspoken codes that regulate behaviour in public space.

 

Nadia Odlum is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Western Sydney. She creates immersive works that explore an intimate relationship with spatiality and urban architecture. Inspired by the abstract patterns and forms of the built environment, her work acts as a medium to reflect on how the body experiences space.

Nadia Odlum has presented work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the New York Transit Museum, Murray Art Museum in Albury, Artspace Ideas Platform, Firstdraft and Penrith Regional Gallery. In 2015 she was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Moya Dyring Memorial Studio. She was an artist in residence at Parramatta Artists’ Studios in 2016 and 2019.

Nadia is also a passionate educator. She has created and delivered workshops for the New York Transit Museum, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Art Gallery of NSW, Parramatta Artists’ Studios and Kaldor Public Art Projects. In 2018 she completed an education fellowship and artist residency at The Wassaic Project in New York. Here she led a program called “Art Scouts“, in which she collaborated with performers and choreographers to deliver a lesson series that explored movement and navigation in urban space.

 

Special thanks to Gandel Philanthropy as Major Education Partner for the exhibition
Kaldor Studio artists were generously supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund