Nalini Malani: Transgressions

Nalini Malani (b. 1946, Karachi) is India’s foremost video and installation artist and a committed activist for women’s rights. She spoke to WINGS producer Mindy Ran in the spring of 2017, at the Stedelijk Museum, where her shadow play Transgressions and other works were installed. She talks about the epidemic of greed and violence against women and the lower castes that is sweeping India, and its origins in India’s relationship to the West.
Malani came to India as a refugee during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, an experience that deeply informs her work. She works with paint, video, and “shadow plays” on mylar cylinders, uses figures from mythology, disappearing languages, and voices and experiences of the oppressed and dispossessed, especially workers, the lower castes, and women. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has acquired some of Malani’s work for their permanent collection.

Credits:

Produced by Mindy Ran; Series producer, Frieda Werden. Additional audio: stedelijk.nl/en/exhibitions/nalini-malan ; youtube.com/watch?v=DwY5vD65apY

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