|
|
Nalini MALANI
India b.1946
 Nalini Malani Remembering Toba Tek Singh 1998–99 20 min. video installation comprising 17 VCDs, 4 data projections, 12 television monitors, 12 tin trunks, quilts, sound Dimensions variable Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
Nalini Malani was born in Karachi in 1946 and lives in Mumbai. She is a senior multimedia artist with an extensive exhibition history. Her practice encompasses drawing and painting, as well as the extension of those forms into projected animation, video and film. Committed to the role of the artist as social activist, Malani often bases her work on the stories of those that have been ignored, forgotten or marginalised by history.
More information about the artist
 Nalini Malani Varaha-Krishna from ‘Stories retold’ continuing series 2002 Mixed media on mylar 150 x 100cm Collection: The artist |
 Nalini Malani Sita from ‘Stories retold’ continuing series 2002 Mixed media on mylar 150 x 100cm Collection: The artist |
 Nalini Malani The sacred and the profane 1998 Synthetic polymer paint on mylar, steel, nylon cord, electric motors, lights and hardware Dimensions variable Collection: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth |
 Cat with a prawn in its mouth c.1885 Kalighat painting |
Malani’s ‘Stories retold’ continuing series depicts myths from Hindu texts, including the Vedas, the Sutras, the Upanisads, the Brahmanas, the Bhagwad Gita, and the Puranas. These texts are rich in metaphor, image and allegory. Malani’s installation The sacred and the profane 1998 depicts morality stories from the Bhagavata Purana, painted onto four motorised, rotating cylinders of mylar (clear polyester film). Some of Malani’s motifs are borrowed from Kalighat paintings — a cheap and popular art form made for nineteenth-century pilgrims to the Kali temple in Kalighat, Calcutta. Lit from within, the decorated cylinders cast a series of moving shadows on the Gallery wall, echoing proto-cinematic techniques. With Mumbai (Bombay) the centre of the ‘Bollywood’ film industry, cinema has become an important and massively popular vehicle for the expression of Indian cultural identity.
 Nalini Malani Remembering Toba Tek Singh 1998–99 20 min. video installation comprising 17 VCDs, 4 data projections, 12 television monitors, 12 tin trunks, quilts, sound Dimensions variable Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
 Nalini Malani Remembering Toba Tek Singh (details) 1998–99 20 min. video installation comprising 17 VCDs, 4 data projections, 12 television monitors, 12 tin trunks, quilts, sound Dimensions variable Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Photographs: Ray Fulton |
Remembering Toba Tek Singh 1998–99 is an installation based on a story by well-known writer Sadat Hasan Manto. It is set in the aftermath of Partition (the division of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947), which resulted in the migration of between 12 and 14million people and the loss of over half a million lives. Partition also demanded the exchange of Hindu and Muslim psychiatric patients. This story tells of one such patient, Bishen Singh, who is forced to move from Pakistan to India and who finally dies in the no-man’s-land between the two countries. Malani’s installation combines video footage of nuclear mushroom clouds with a filmic montage of her ‘mutant’ drawings, depicting distorted, phantom figures.
This artist is featured in the Education Resource Kit.
List of works in APT 2002
Artists and Works
Print friendly version
|
|
|
|
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_13.jpg","Nalini%20Malani%3Cbr%3ERemembering%20Toba%20Tek%20Singh%201998%u201399%3Cbr%3E20%20min.%20video%20installation%20comprising%2017%20VCDs%2C%204%20data%20projections%2C%2012%20television%20monitors%2C%2012%20tin%20trunks%2C%20quilts%2C%20sound%3Cbr%3EDimensions%20variable%3Cbr%3EPurchased%202000.%20Queensland%20Art%20Gallery%20Foundation%20Grant%3Cbr%3ECollection%3A%20Queensland%20Art%20Gallery%3Cbr%3EPhotograph%3A%20Matthew%20Kassay"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_02.jpg","Nalini%20Malani%3Cbr%3EVaraha-Krishna%20from%20%u2018Stories%20retold%u2019%20continuing%20series%202002%3Cbr%3EMixed%20media%20on%20mylar%3Cbr%3E150%20x%20100cm%3Cbr%3ECollection%3A%20The%20artist"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_03.jpg","Nalini%20Malani%3Cbr%3ESita%20from%20%u2018Stories%20retold%u2019%20continuing%20series%202002%3Cbr%3EMixed%20media%20on%20mylar%3Cbr%3E150%20x%20100cm%3Cbr%3ECollection%3A%20The%20artist"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_04.jpg","Nalini%20Malani%3Cbr%3EThe%20sacred%20and%20the%20profane%201998%3Cbr%3ESynthetic%20polymer%20paint%20on%20mylar%2C%20steel%2C%20nylon%20cord%2C%20electric%20motors%2C%20lights%20and%20hardware%3Cbr%3EDimensions%20variable%3Cbr%3ECollection%3A%20Art%20Gallery%20of%20Western%20Australia%2C%20Perth"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_05.jpg","Cat%20with%20a%20prawn%20in%20its%20mouth%20c.1885%3Cbr%3EKalighat%20painting"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_11.jpg","Nalini%20Malani%3Cbr%3ERemembering%20Toba%20Tek%20Singh%201998%u201399%3Cbr%3E20%20min.%20video%20installation%20comprising%2017%20VCDs%2C%204%20data%20projections%2C%2012%20television%20monitors%2C%2012%20tin%20trunks%2C%20quilts%2C%20sound%3Cbr%3EDimensions%20variable%3Cbr%3EPurchased%202000.%20Queensland%20Art%20Gallery%20Foundation%20Grant%3Cbr%3ECollection%3A%20Queensland%20Art%20Gallery%3Cbr%3EPhotograph%3A%20Matthew%20Kassay"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_07.jpg",""))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_08.jpg",""))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_09.jpg","Nalini%20Malani%3Cbr%3ERemembering%20Toba%20Tek%20Singh%20%28details%29%201998%u201399%3Cbr%3E20%20min.%20video%20installation%20comprising%2017%20VCDs%2C%204%20data%20projections%2C%2012%20television%20monitors%2C%2012%20tin%20trunks%2C%20quilts%2C%20sound%3Cbr%3EDimensions%20variable%3Cbr%3EPurchased%202000.%20Queensland%20Art%20Gallery%20Foundation%20Grant%3Cbr%3ECollection%3A%20Queensland%20Art%20Gallery%3Cbr%3EPhotographs%3A%20Ray%20Fulton"))
![](javascript:popupImage("../graphics/apt2002/popups/nalini_malani_10.jpg",""))
