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Lot Essay
Born in Karachi in 1946, Nalini Malani moved to Calcutta with her family shortly before the partition of the Indian Subcontinent the following year. Several decades later, her work continues to be shaped by her family’s experience as refugees at that time, focusing on themes of memory, politics and identity through a meditative and poetic vocabulary. Grounded in postcolonial thought, Malani's practice positions the marginalized and displaced as active participants in the process of decolonization. In a celebrated career spanning more than sixty years, the artist has worked with several genres and mediums including painting, photography, theatrical productions, video, digital animation and large-scale installations, and is unapologetic in her appropriation of imagery from a multitude of cultures and time periods.
Mother India/Courage 1 (Red Babies), executed contemporaneously with Mother India, Transactions in the Construction of Pain, belongs to Malani's acclaimed Living in Alicetime series, in which the artist explores the relationship between women and their environments while examining the lasting and layered effects of gendered violence, political conflict and collective trauma. “Malani’s reverse paintings on acrylic imply that we inhabit ‘Alicetime’, an ethos of illusion and delusion in which human beings are reduced or magnified by the machinations of advertorial power; state authority or religious fundamentalism” (N. Adajania, Nalini Malani Living in Alicetime, Mumbai, 2006, p. 4).
"Malani's most compelling works in the series are Mother India (courage) I and II, where she makes a bold leap to move from the story of an adventurous young girl to construct a narrative of a grown woman, who becomes a mother, despite the trials and tribulations she faces. One finds parallels here with Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, who continues living her life, even after her children are killed in the war. Unlike Sita and Medea and thousands of women, whose freedom and individualities have been preyed upon by deep-rooted traditions and claustrophobic social practices, Mother India (Courage) does not give in – she is relentless in her quest for a life of respect and happiness. Clad in a soiled dress, she has two new-born babies; she continues her journey with a whip in one hand and a nipple in the other" (S. Mitra, 'In Charge, Out There: Portrait of Alice', Art India, Mumbai, 2006, p. 93).
Within this fantastical environment, Mother India/Courage 1 (Red Babies) reflects on the complex and often painful legacies of both the 1947 Partition and the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002. At its center, Mother India strides forward wielding a sickle, while two spinal or umbilical cords emerge from her back, connecting her with two red babies. The sickle functions as a potent symbol of peasant resistance, labor movements and anti-colonial struggle, evoking broader histories of liberation and self-determination. The red babies perhaps symbolize the victims of these struggles and the enduring impact of violence on future generations. Nevertheless, Mother India advances with determination, sustaining them through the umbilical cords that bind them to her, transmitting nourishment, resilience and hope.
As Nancy Adajania observes, “The Brechtian Mother Courage is framed by a garland made from a spinal cord. The vertebral rings look like clubs waiting to be tried on unsuspecting flesh. The spinal garland also doubles as an umbilical cord connecting red babies (is this a reference to foetuses pulled out of wombs during genocide?). The tender Mother India has developed into a steel-nerved Brechtian Mother Courage to ward off the dystopias visited upon her in the name of religious nationalism, economic advancement and invasive technology” (N. Adajania, Nalini Malani Living in Alicetime, Mumbai, 2006, p. 3).
Celebrating Malani’s distinguished career, in 2019 Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona awarded her the Joan Miró Prize, and hosted her exhibition You Don’t Hear Me. Malani also received the first Contemporary Fellowship awarded by the National Gallery, London, in 2020, culminating in shows at the Holburne Museum, Bath, and National Gallery in 2022-23. A major retrospective of Malani’s work was held in two parts at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017) and Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2018), and her work has been included in numerous exhibitions worldwide including at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai (2024); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Québec, Canada (2023); Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2022); M+ Museum, Hong Kong (2022); Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2020); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016) and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2014). Currently, a new animation chamber by the artist, Of Woman Born, commissioned by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, is on view as a collateral exhibition during the 61st Venice Biennale, and next year, the Tate Modern in London will open a major retrospective surveying Malani's six-decade multidisciplinary career, further underscoring her position as one of the most influential voices in contemporary art.
Mother India/Courage 1 (Red Babies), executed contemporaneously with Mother India, Transactions in the Construction of Pain, belongs to Malani's acclaimed Living in Alicetime series, in which the artist explores the relationship between women and their environments while examining the lasting and layered effects of gendered violence, political conflict and collective trauma. “Malani’s reverse paintings on acrylic imply that we inhabit ‘Alicetime’, an ethos of illusion and delusion in which human beings are reduced or magnified by the machinations of advertorial power; state authority or religious fundamentalism” (N. Adajania, Nalini Malani Living in Alicetime, Mumbai, 2006, p. 4).
"Malani's most compelling works in the series are Mother India (courage) I and II, where she makes a bold leap to move from the story of an adventurous young girl to construct a narrative of a grown woman, who becomes a mother, despite the trials and tribulations she faces. One finds parallels here with Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, who continues living her life, even after her children are killed in the war. Unlike Sita and Medea and thousands of women, whose freedom and individualities have been preyed upon by deep-rooted traditions and claustrophobic social practices, Mother India (Courage) does not give in – she is relentless in her quest for a life of respect and happiness. Clad in a soiled dress, she has two new-born babies; she continues her journey with a whip in one hand and a nipple in the other" (S. Mitra, 'In Charge, Out There: Portrait of Alice', Art India, Mumbai, 2006, p. 93).
Within this fantastical environment, Mother India/Courage 1 (Red Babies) reflects on the complex and often painful legacies of both the 1947 Partition and the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002. At its center, Mother India strides forward wielding a sickle, while two spinal or umbilical cords emerge from her back, connecting her with two red babies. The sickle functions as a potent symbol of peasant resistance, labor movements and anti-colonial struggle, evoking broader histories of liberation and self-determination. The red babies perhaps symbolize the victims of these struggles and the enduring impact of violence on future generations. Nevertheless, Mother India advances with determination, sustaining them through the umbilical cords that bind them to her, transmitting nourishment, resilience and hope.
As Nancy Adajania observes, “The Brechtian Mother Courage is framed by a garland made from a spinal cord. The vertebral rings look like clubs waiting to be tried on unsuspecting flesh. The spinal garland also doubles as an umbilical cord connecting red babies (is this a reference to foetuses pulled out of wombs during genocide?). The tender Mother India has developed into a steel-nerved Brechtian Mother Courage to ward off the dystopias visited upon her in the name of religious nationalism, economic advancement and invasive technology” (N. Adajania, Nalini Malani Living in Alicetime, Mumbai, 2006, p. 3).
Celebrating Malani’s distinguished career, in 2019 Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona awarded her the Joan Miró Prize, and hosted her exhibition You Don’t Hear Me. Malani also received the first Contemporary Fellowship awarded by the National Gallery, London, in 2020, culminating in shows at the Holburne Museum, Bath, and National Gallery in 2022-23. A major retrospective of Malani’s work was held in two parts at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017) and Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2018), and her work has been included in numerous exhibitions worldwide including at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai (2024); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Québec, Canada (2023); Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2022); M+ Museum, Hong Kong (2022); Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2020); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016) and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2014). Currently, a new animation chamber by the artist, Of Woman Born, commissioned by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, is on view as a collateral exhibition during the 61st Venice Biennale, and next year, the Tate Modern in London will open a major retrospective surveying Malani's six-decade multidisciplinary career, further underscoring her position as one of the most influential voices in contemporary art.