Nalini MALANI: My Reality is Different

ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL presents Nalini MALANI’s solo exhibition My Reality is Different from 1 September to 21 October 2023. Internationally acclaimed artist Nalini MALANI (b. 1946) is a pioneer of video art and one of India’s most important female contemporary artists. MALANI has for the past 50 years carried out experimental and innovative works using various medium from painting, drawing, video, film, animation and installation. MALANI’s works incorporate various themes and characters from literature, philosophy and history, confronting issues on inequality, violence and social oppression with a focus on giving a voice to women. ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL will present her most recent and new video, animation, painting and drawing installation on all levels of the gallery space.

 

Level B1 will present MALANI’s new version of Wall Drawing/Erasure Performance series “City of Desires”. These Wall Drawing/Erasure Performances have been carried out by MALANI since 1992, and consist of mural drawings exploring themes of memory, remembrance, forgetting, shared traditions and experiences. Recently it has been presented at her solo exhibitionat The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada (2023). The process involves a participation of local female artists working in collaboration with MALANI through a specific on-going mural drawing process, and for the newly executed work at ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL, it will be conducted with five local Korean female artists including SIM Raejung and LEE Yejoo. By the end of the exhibition there will also be an erasure performance directed by MALANI.

 

Level 1 will present one of the most important recent video installation work by MALANI “My Reality is Different”. This work was presented in the National Gallery London, UK in 2022, as MALANI was selected and awarded the 2020 National Gallery Contemporary Fellowship with Art Fund. The first level gallery space and walls will be filled with over-lapping 9 video projections, showing 34 new ipad animations in continuous loop with sound. The animations show famous paintings of the National Gallery London’s collection, selected by MALANI and are re-interpreted and transformed by her hand-drawn ipad animations. MALANI’s created animation images interact and move on these famous classical paintings dynamically covering and erasing the background. The video work includes sound, a narration that consists of the female prophetess Cassandra’s story on the fall of the ancient city Troy.

 

Level 3 will present MALANI’s new and rare work of a set of 7 large multi-panel reverse paintings “Ballad of a Woman”. It will be the 4^th multi-panel painting by MALANI since 7 years ago. MALANI’s first set of large multi-panel reverse paintings were shown at Venice Biennale in 2007, the second at Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi, India(2015) and third at Centre Pompidou, Paris, France(2017). The work is inspired from the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska’s poem ‘Ballad’, from 1962, which tells the story of a woman who is murdered. A video work of the same theme will be exhibited on level 4 of the gallery space. “Ballad of a Woman” shows MALANI’s famous type of hand-drawn ipad animations, with colorful bold colors and active movement. The animations show the woman’s after-life, protecting her murderer. By showing such an act MALANI addressed the issues of self-sacrifice and suffering that women have carried out in life. The story that unfolds is dark, hidden and covered by the bright drawing lines. This recent video work was first shown at the façade of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada this year, as a commission work for the MMFA’s Digital Canvas.

 

Nalini MALANI, born in India in 1946, graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, India, then she studied Fine Art in Paris, France under a scholarship programme. MALANI has presented over 20 solo exhibitions at museums including The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada (2023), The National Gallery, London, UK (2022), M+, Hong Kong (2022), Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2021), the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2017). MALANI has recently been awarded the 2023 Kyoto Prize in Art and Philosophy. MALANI’s works are part of museum collections at Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, Tate Modern, London, UK, and MoMA New York, US.