MATERIALS AND OBJECTS 5
NALINI MALANI
Nalini Malani’s ‘video shadow plays’ combine video, shadow and sound to tell multiple stories. In this
work, she creates a tribute to women’s lives forgotten throughout history.
Each cylinder in In Search of Vanished Blood is reverse painted and features images of
dispossessed people, mythological figures and surgical instruments. They cast ominous shadows
which shift across the projections.
The artist draws inspiration from a range of sources. We hear Cassandra, a figure from Greek
mythology who predicts the future but is cursed, so no-one believes her. Referencing texts from
German writers Christa Wolf and Heiner Müller, Indian writer and activist Mahasweta Devi, Irish
author Samuel Beckett, and others, Cassandra anticipates violence against women during periods of
political upheaval. Her story unfolds through stop-motion animations inspired by both historic and
recent wartime atrocities.
The title of the work in Search of Vanished Blood is from the poem Lahu ka Surag 1965 by Pakistani
writer Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Lines from the poem appear over Cassandra’s veiled face. People who have
experienced violence reappear through the endless loops of recurring shadows, creating a sense of
lost hope. The sequence ends with a gesture in American Sign Language that expresses a longing
for democracy.
Malani’s work reflects her commitment to feminist activism. In Search of Vanished Blood amplifies
women’s voices to express Malani’s belief in humanism – the strength of what we have in common
rather than what divides us.
Nalini Malani, In Search of Vanished Blood, 2012-20.
Born 1946, India pre-partition (now Pakistan), works India and the Netherlands
Curated by Beatriz Cifuentes Feliciano.
Assistant Curator, International Art and Jess Baxter, Assistant Curator, International Art
from the Tate Modern information placard
