In Search of Vanished Blood II
Nalini Malani Indian
Not on view
In Search of Vanished Blood II is the most consummate and compelling example of Malani’s "video shadow plays" series that she has been developing since 2001. An immersive kaleidoscopic environment, the installation is comprised of five reverse painted rotating mylar cylinders and six video projections with sound. While its title comes from a poem by the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the piece itself is inspired by Christa Wolf’s novel Cassandra (1983) and Rainer Maria Rilke’s book The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910). The visuals are accompanied by a soundscape made of a collage of lines from Heiner Muller’s drama Hamletmachine (1977), Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), and Gayatri Spivak's English translation of the social activist and writer Mahasweta Devi’s short story Draupadi (1997). The work touches on the condition of women in India, and, on a broader level, the dynamic and condition of disembodiment and social individuation today.
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