Apart from Amar Kanwar, Nalini Malani was another noteworthy participant from India at DOCUMENTA (13). She showcased her latest ‘video/shadow play, ‘In Search of Vanished Blood’, a huge site-responsive installation that employed reverse-painted mylar sheets on many rotating cylinders, creating a narrative video frieze.
Its aim was to ‘stage’ a provocative commentary on religious fundamentalism, communal bloodletting and other form of gender violence. In addition, she was invited as one of three creators to produce an artist book that included insightful essays and interviews and was accompanied by a film, ‘Cassandra’s Gift’ directed by Payal Kapadia that explored the making of this whole project.
Another name to feature at dOCUMENTA (13) was that of the Karachi-born and Delhi-based practitioner, Bani Abidi, who presented a film installation, titled ‘Death At a 30 Degree Angle’. It was about the commission of a ubiquitous statue by a minor politician. Set within veteran sculptor Ram Sutar’s atelier, the narrative mulled over self-portraiture to go with megalomania and monumentality. A sculptor’s studio turned into a peculiar site of semi-fictional articulations, contemplating a current political class. A significant addition to her oeuvre, it was unlike the artist’s earlier works, which tend to look into public scenarios of border-crossings, security, and identity conflicts within which she prefers to remain inscribed.
On the other hand, Tejal Shah is known to activate a relational matrix between machine-animal-human-divine by constantly drawing upon Buddhist philosophy, biological exuberance, post-pornography, interspecies and also post-humanism.
The artist deeply analyzes noted physicist Fritjof Capra’s description of the ‘Crisis of Perception’ and goes to investigate how diverse bodies, gender and sexuality are configured within such a crisis. She produced a new work for the prestigious art event. ‘Between the Waves’, a multi-part installation by her, was based on elements like film, text, performative choreography and sound. It emerged through her recent fascination for evolution models, presenting non-normative complexities as well as excesses of species and nature, animal and human societies.
Its aim was to ‘stage’ a provocative commentary on religious fundamentalism, communal bloodletting and other form of gender violence. In addition, she was invited as one of three creators to produce an artist book that included insightful essays and interviews and was accompanied by a film, ‘Cassandra’s Gift’ directed by Payal Kapadia that explored the making of this whole project.
Another name to feature at dOCUMENTA (13) was that of the Karachi-born and Delhi-based practitioner, Bani Abidi, who presented a film installation, titled ‘Death At a 30 Degree Angle’. It was about the commission of a ubiquitous statue by a minor politician. Set within veteran sculptor Ram Sutar’s atelier, the narrative mulled over self-portraiture to go with megalomania and monumentality. A sculptor’s studio turned into a peculiar site of semi-fictional articulations, contemplating a current political class. A significant addition to her oeuvre, it was unlike the artist’s earlier works, which tend to look into public scenarios of border-crossings, security, and identity conflicts within which she prefers to remain inscribed.
On the other hand, Tejal Shah is known to activate a relational matrix between machine-animal-human-divine by constantly drawing upon Buddhist philosophy, biological exuberance, post-pornography, interspecies and also post-humanism.
The artist deeply analyzes noted physicist Fritjof Capra’s description of the ‘Crisis of Perception’ and goes to investigate how diverse bodies, gender and sexuality are configured within such a crisis. She produced a new work for the prestigious art event. ‘Between the Waves’, a multi-part installation by her, was based on elements like film, text, performative choreography and sound. It emerged through her recent fascination for evolution models, presenting non-normative complexities as well as excesses of species and nature, animal and human societies.
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