Why Art for Future Lawyers? An exploration of power, law and art
Workshop presented by:
Sri Vamsi Matta
Chaired by Professor John Tobin
Tuesday 11 November 2025
About the workshop
Co-hosted by the MLS Human Rights Program, Asian Law Centre, & Graduate Researchers’ Association
This interdisciplinary workshop invited law students to explore how art remains a vital space for asserting dignity, identity, and justice. Drawing on narrative and performance practices from South Asia by historically marginalized artists, the workshop situated creative expression within the constitutional promises of equality and freedom of expression. Through theatre, visual art, and storytelling, participants examined how law, culture, and power intersect to shape the creation, reception, and regulation of art. We explored how dominant institutions decide what counts as “legitimate” or “obscene” art, and how marginalized artists contest these boundaries to reclaim voice and agency.
Law students and lawyers benefit from understanding art because both are systems through which societies negotiate power, meaning, and justice. Debates around freedom of expression, cultural appropriation, intellectual property, and obscenity are not abstract, they are lived realities that reveal how law and culture constantly define and challenge one another. Art acts as a creative disruptor, reimagining justice, questioning orthodoxy, and humanizing law. It is our hope that workshop participants left with a sense of how justice can be argued, imagined, and performed.
Sri Vamsi Matta (Vamsi) is a Bangalore-based interdisciplinary theatre artist whose work is informed by his Dalit identity, lived experiences, and socio-political context. His recent works include Star in the Sky, which explores the struggles and resilience of Dalit students and was a runner-up for the Tata Lit Fest’s Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Award, and Come Eat With Me, a critically acclaimed performance currently touring internationally. Vamsi is the co-founder of OffStream and Perishable Goods Collective, arts collectives that address caste oppression through theatre, food, and transdisciplinary creative practice. An experienced educator and facilitator, he engages communities in workshops and collaborative projects. He is currently in residency in Australia, touring Come Eat With Me at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney and Arts House, Melbourne.