Surveying the incredible six-decade career of contemporary artist Nalini Malani, this exhibition is characterised by its ability to evoke both beauty and discomfort.
As a global storyteller based in Mumbai, Malani’s work is deeply influenced by her own lived experience as a child refugee of India’s Partition. Her practice centres on rewriting Western and Eastern history, myths and literature in a way that prompts viewers to question the world around them. With this exhibition, Malani addresses the complexity of our times and reveals the hopeful conviction that guides her practice: ‘The future is female, there is no other way’.
Known in India since the late sixties for her pioneering multidisciplinary approach, Malani gained international recognition with signature monumental multi-media works and installations such as Mother India: Transactions in the Construction of Pain, and In Search of Vanished Blood. These works will be presented in the show alongside her recent iPad animation series Can You Hear Me?
Designed specially with the artist, this is Malani’s largest survey exhibition to date, compromising almost 200 works. These include rarely seen watercolour diaries, black and white films, camera-less photography, large-scale video-based works, innovative reverse paintings and a newly-commissioned wall drawing and performance piece.