Important Notice

Nalini Malani’s practice extends across mixed media paintings, installations, theatre and video and draws from an equally wide range of influences. Inspired by Indian and Greek mythology, early 20th century experimental poetry, her own experiences as a refugee of the Indo-Pakistani Partition and the 19th century literary nonsense genre, Malani creates rich, political works by “considering the codified versions of these stories, the stifled... Nalini Malani’s practice extends across mixed media paintings, installations, theatre and video and draws from an equally wide range of influences. Inspired by Indian and Greek mythology, early 20th century experimental poetry, her own experiences as a refugee of the Indo-Pakistani Partition and the 19th century literary nonsense genre, Malani creates rich, political works by “considering the codified versions of these stories, the stifled origins and as well their multiple retellings.” (Avni Doshi, “Womanvoice”, WOMANTIME, Mumbai: Art Musings, 2013, p. 3) She uproots her work from national or cultural traditions; they make a claim to a universality on the basis of the cultural and temporal eclecticness of the wells she draws from. Says writer and art historian Avni Doshi, “Drawing on these diverse sources, she reveals a literary legacy of revenge and anguish that imbibes our stories, thus extending our cultural reference points freely and readily. Malani’s stories are not thematically tied to a specific region, religion or country, but move fluidly, through the foundations of language and image, taking on various guises and names.” (Doshi, p. 3) The artist is especially interested in myth as a cultural framework with the help of which to elucidate the essential truths of existence. She says, “There’s a universal truth to them. They’ve come down through generations, and there’s no one author. They’re like seeds - you plant one and so much comes out. I’m fascinated by the melding of cultures, and subsequently myths.” (The artist interviewed by Meara Sharma and Henry Peck, “A Conversation With: Video Artist Nalini Malani,” The New York Times, 7 March 2013, online)

The present lot, an oil on canvas by the artist, features a dreamlike tableau bringing together a disparate cast of characters from various realms. Malani casts dream as an allegory in the Kleinian tradition according to art critic Geeta Kapur as she “conducts her dreamwork for all to see, as a strained but dogged act of pictorialization… the story will slip but the didactic props and cliches are cleverly positioned and help to peg it back on to the allegorical framework. Thus assuming the role of the dreamer and analyst alike, she treats the unconscious as a language-in-narration by means of which the other, who always at risk of being lost, is engaged.” (“Body as Gesture: Women Artists at Work”, Geeta Kapur, When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India, New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2000, p. 28)

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