The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

NALINI MALANI Cinema and advertising hoardings in a New Delhi street, 1995 Photograph: Rhana Devenport The work has an added poignancy, because it was made very soon after India and Pakistan entered the global 'fraternity' of nations that stockpile nuclear armaments; both countries exploded nuclear warheads in 1998. Another ironic footnote in this exchange of nuclear showmanship was India's decision to explode its warhead on the day the Buddha's death is commemorated. In India the military described this testing as 'The Buddha has reached nirvana'. Malani's installation is thus inflected with how we might consider notions of annihilation, existence and release, and liberation and enlightenment as they are understood within the term 'nirvana' - underscored further by the dark paradox that this description of 'nothingness' suggests. 'Mythology' combines with 'India' in an almost canonical association. Those Hindu texts that form one vein of India's coursing mythological terrain include the Vedas, the Sutras, the Upanisads, the Brahmanas, the Bhagwad Gita, and the Puranas, and are rich sources of story, metaphor, image and allegory. Nalini Malani's The sacred and the profane 1998 is made up of four rotating cylinders of mylar and includes drawings that cite the good versus evil morality stories of the Bhagavata Purana. This work also features motifs reminiscent of the Kalighat pictures, a popular painting form that grew out of the folk art traditions of Bengal. Pictures were made for the thousands of pilgrims who came to Kalighat to worship at the famous temple built to the goddess Kali . Made as cheap mementos for the auspicious occasion of pilgrimage, this painting style flourished in nineteenth-century Calcutta following the completion of the new Kali temple in 1809. 5 The 'Patuas' or artists w ho made these pictures chronicled the mythology of gods and goddesses and innovated from this base to include subjects such as the conflicts and customs of the society of the day, often commenting on the fickleness of change. The sacred and the profane offers the viewer two sets of images: the drawings on the cylinders themselves, and the spectral shadows cast by the light as it passes through the transparent mylar support. These dual images, in which the drawings and their shadows are decisively linked, are of course paralleled in the title, which suggests that the place of the sacred as a cipher for morality is not necessarily as clear as it might be. This is certainly the case in regard to the metaphysical wisdom that the plethora of Indian mythology has to offer. 6 As with so much of Malani's work, her relentless probing of those very uncertainties attests to a practice which concentrates on the submerged and coercive. Lett: Sita from 'Stories retold' continuing series 2002 Mixed media on mylar 152.5 x 101cm Collection: The artist Right: Varaha-Krishna from 'Stories retold' continuing series 2002 Mixed media on mylar 152.5 x 101cm Collection:The artist When Remembering Toba Tek Singh was exhibited at the Prince of Wales Museum, in Bombay, it attracted a large audience. This vast museum, which includes the Museum of Natural History and the Museum ofTraditional Art, is an important destination for Indian tourists. The initial attraction for the majority of people who visited Malani's installation was the glimmering light of the moving image. To this public the impact of India's film industry has meant a saturation and sensual immersion that has resulted in an immediate affinity with the cinematic. India is the world's largest producer of films, and Bombay is one of the most significant centres of this production. Unlike the Los Angeles suburb of Hollywood, 'Bollywood' has grown to encapsulate the imaginary abundance of India's rampant moving picture industry. Bollywood, of course, is not a place. It is an idea. The implications of this virtual grafting suggests a complex relationship. Bollywood embraces its tangible other, Hollywood, and includes in this illusive embrace the flickering promises of glamour, success and escape. The grasp of this celluloid world is such that it is now one of the most significant sites whereby a nation meditates, consoles, celebrates, mediates and creates myths about itself. Nalini Malani's contribution as an artist in this environment is to serve as part of the undertow. Suhanya Raffel is Head of Asian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery. 77