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I bring the myth into contemporary times and I make it into a contemporary issue by using the myth as a metaphor. - NALINI MALANI

Contemporary artist, Nalini Malani's art is recognisable for its lush and politically charged nature that spans mixed- media paintings and drawings, videos, installations and theatre works. Malani belongs to a generation of women artists in India who seamlessly weave personal narratives into history,... I bring the myth into contemporary times and I make it into a contemporary issue by using the myth as a metaphor. - NALINI MALANI

Contemporary artist, Nalini Malani's art is recognisable for its lush and politically charged nature that spans mixed- media paintings and drawings, videos, installations and theatre works. Malani belongs to a generation of women artists in India who seamlessly weave personal narratives into history, producing works that are autobiographical in varying degrees. This is largely because her extensive body of work continues to be shaped by her experiences as a refugee during the Partition of India, and highlights the themes of memory, politics and identity. Other strong influences on Malani's oeuvre include Hindu and Greek mythology, 19th century English nonsense writing and early 20th century experimental theatre - all of which help in her critical examination of gender roles, race, world politics and the dangers of rampant globalisation and consumerism.

Malani's works are underscored by what she calls an unwaveringly urban and internationalist point of view and by her early training as a painter. According to art historian Chaitanya Sambrani, There is something incredibly visceral about Malani's figures in the way that their contours come into definition as though imprinted on the surface by an effluence of the fluid matter that their own persons are made of. She frequently puts down a figure or a gestural nuance with a single sweep of a full, loaded brush. The figures emerge from the surface in a manner that suggests their retaining identity as part of the surface, while simultaneously gaining a defined individuality as figures. There is this remarkable parallel to the relationship between the individual and the urban, metropolitan environment. (Chaitanya Sambrani, Missionaries of Mammon: Global Parasites, Nalini Malani: The Medea Project and Beyond, nalinimalani.com, online)

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