Nalini Malani: In Search of Vanished Blood

EVENT DESCRIPTION

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, will debut the newly commissioned work In Search of Vanished Blood (2012/22) by moving image pioneer Nalini Malani, on the M+ Facade on Friday, 5 August 2022 at 7pm. The moving image work will be displayed on the M+ Facade until Sunday, 2 October 2022, from 7pm to 9:10pm daily. From Saturday, 8 October 2022 to Sunday, 30 October 2022, the work will be presented from 7pm to 9:10pm during the weekends only.

Comprising live-action performance, animation, drawing, painting, and found footage, this silent eight-and-a-half-minute video is tailored for display on the M+ Facade in a bold visual dialogue with Hong Kong’s dynamic skyline. Complementing Nalini Malani: Vision in Motion, the inaugural exhibition in the Studio at M+, In Search of Vanished Blood continues Malani’s longstanding artistic investigation into the effects of war, violence, and the repression of women. The enigmatic video mingles coded images from Greek and Hindu mythology with personal and real-world references, layering architectural forms, cloudy skies, world maps, human faces, and a gigantic prostrate female figure that emerge from shadows and darkness.

Inspired by Cassandra, the 1983 novel by German writer and critic Christa Wolf about the Trojan priestess in the Graeco-Trojan war, In Search of Vanished Blood re-tells the story of the fall of Troy, but from the point of view of the woman whose visionary powers earned her contempt and scorn. Malani re-evaluates epic narratives to consider the erasure and side-lining of women’s knowledge and experience. The looming figure of Cassandra, with her steady, unflinching gaze, urges onlookers to pay attention to hidden and ignored social injustices throughout history. Malani hopes that In Search of Vanished Blood offers the audience a moment of careful reflection, inviting them to revisit societal norms and retrace histories, in particular those related to violence and violence committed against women.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Born in Karachi, British India (now Pakistan) in 1946, Malani studied at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art in Mumbai from 1964 to 1969, during which she had a studio at the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute. In 1969, she was invited to participate in the Vision Exchange Workshop (VIEW) where she made her first stop-motion animation and a series of black-and-white films. She continued her studies in Paris from 1970 to 1972 with a scholarship from the French government, and in 2010, she received an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute. Malani has had retrospectives at Centre Pompidou, Castello di Rivoli, and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, as well as thirty solo presentations in museums around the world.