Collection
Nalini Malani
(India 1946– )
- Title
- Unity in diversity
- Place of origin
-
India
- Year
- 2003
- Media categories
- Time-based media, DVD, Installation
- Materials used
- video installation, colour, sound, 07:30 min loop
- Edition
- 4/10
- Dimensions
-
dimensions variable
- Credit
- Gift of the artist 2012
- Accession number
- 60.2012
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
'Unity in Diversity' reworks an allegorical painting ‘Galaxy of Musicians’ by the iconic 19th Century painter Raja Ravi Varma. It shows eleven female musicians dressed in the different costumes of India signifying unity in diversity.
Malani contrasts the image embodying this ideal with more recent imagery of the bloody riots that occurred in the province of Gujarat in 2002. She takes up a particular history of nationalism, looking at both sides (the idealistic and the violent), suggesting links between them but also mourning the loss of this ideal.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, February 2012.
- Bibliography (3)
-
Thomas McEvilley and Chaitanya Sambrani, Nalini Malani 2007, Dublin, 2007.
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (Editor), Nalini Malani: Splitting the Other 2010, Germany, 2010, 154-155 (colour illus.). Edition unknown
Chaitanya Sambrani, Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India 2004, New York, 2004, 92 (colour iilus.), 94 (colour illus.). Cat.no.18a; edition unknown. Cat.no. 18b, DVD stills; edition unknown
- Exhibition history (1)
-
Mother India (2012), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 11 Feb 2012–05 May 2012
