NALINI MALANI

Nalini Malani, one of India’s most prominent artists, comprises paintings, wall drawings, video installations and a shadow play, and Malani has gained an international reputation for her multi-layered mixed-media installations. Sourced from history and culture, and mixed with Malani’s personal influences and experiences, they build up a narrative of epic proportions. Images from Palestine and Bosnia, and from the American destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are projected over Indian references, mixing universal concepts with specific historical and personal ones. Most of her works refer to female figures from both Indian and European traditions, which have been the focus of Malani’s work since the 1970s and give additional meaning to her complex layered surfaces. She was brought up in India, the melting pot of diverse ethnic groups, languages and religions, focuses on the trauma caused by endless conflicts between religions and ethnic groups. The history of constant disunion and chaos has been the solid basis of her works.