Nalini Malani's latest exhibition pulls out a chapter from the Greek mythology and transforms itself to match the modern-day perspective. The artist tells Iknoor Kaur about using the princess of Troy as a symbol to denote the female thought
Cassandra, the princess of Troy who had the power of prophecy and the curse of never being believed and an integral part of Greek mythology, had predicted the destruction of the city of Troy by the Trojan horse. But nobody believed her. Known as a figure of epic tradition, she is often referred to as a symbol of tragedy and romance in the modern context and is the emblem of female thought in Nalani Malani’s ongoing exhibition Cassandra’s Gift at Vadehra Art Gallery. “For me Cassandra signifies the nature of female thought which has a lot to do with instinctive knowledge, a part that we don’t pay attention to. We tend to neglect the area of female source and we are already witnessing the result of this in our own country with the way women are violated. So the over arching subject has to do with hindering real progress. If you annihilate your female part you are annihilating progress,” explains the artist whose exhibition features video projections, shadow play and her famous reverse paintings.
The exhibition is spread over three sections, each with its own reference to context. Nalani elaborates, “The first section, as you walk in, has to do with Cassandra who was my inspiration for making this work. I have also discovered the work of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz which fits the concept very well. With his poetry I was able to take my thought further into my work In Search of Vanished Blood. This is about victims we don’t know, the conquerors we have never heard of and our absentmindedness as to whose victory was it. It signifies the uselessness of shedding another person’s blood. Violence is the worst thing one can practice.”
The second section is about communication and connection, “which are two of the prerequisites of being a human being. The last section has the shadow play called Tables Have Turned which takes quotes from Christa Wolf’s Kassandra,” she adds.
Nalini has always loved working around literature and her reason for choosing Kassandra as her muse’s reference was only because of Wolf’s modern approach. She says, “It’s a modern version of the story of Cassandra. I’m interested in bringing myths into the modern arena. I’m not interested in the old idea of myths. But I am interested in looking at our own lives through the eyes of the myth. That is what myths are about — they come to us as universal truth through the ages. It is up to us to bring them forward and link them with contemporary times.”
Being one of the pioneers in video art, Nalini feels that her work comes from her passion for theatre. She shares, “I would love to do theatre but in our country that is very difficult. So I thought that if I can work with performers and make video plays, it will be easier. So I make video plays and a lot of them come out of plays or literature.”
Nalini made her first video play in 1998 to connect to a wider audience. “People don’t walk into galleries. They are daunting places for a man on the street. So I wanted to create works where I could draw public in. My first show was a protest against nuclear testing that took place in 1998,” she informs.
According to Nalini, the trend of video art has evolved over time. “When I started, there were only three people in India who did video art but now there are more. More galleries have invested in the equipment and are willing to show video art,” she adds.