Nalini Malani's Stedelijk Exhibition Confronts Global Tensions Through Multimedia Works

Nalini Malani's solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum features her response to Karel Appel's 1951 mural, Migration (1991–2017), executed in somber black charcoal contrasting Appel's vibrant CoBrA style. The show includes Transgressions (2001), a video/shadow play with rotating cylinders painted in Kalighat style, addressing postcolonial themes through scenes of India-Pakistan conflict and decolonization. Malani's erasure performance will destroy the mural at the exhibition's end, continuing her practice of temporary installations seen in City of Desires (1992), originally shown for 15 days at Mumbai's Chemould Gallery. Works like In Search of Vanished Blood (2012), originally a six-channel piece for Documenta 13, use mythological figures like Cassandra to address violence against women. The exhibition presents hybrid media including prints, video, and books, with I am the Angel of Despair (2015) extracting film stills superimposed with war imagery. Malani's work tackles rising nationalism, India-Pakistan tensions, globalization, migration, and women's oppression, elevating local themes to universal allegories. The show provides an overview of her five-decade career, featuring recurring preoccupations with Hindu nationalism's growth since Narendra Modi's 2014 election.