In Search of Vanished Blood

The single channel video play “In Search of Vanished Blood”, by India’s video art pioneer Nalini Malani, revolves around two types of violence, the defensive and the aggressive pertaining respectively to femininity and masculinity. For the Kochi Muziris Biennial, Malani chose to project in the conference room of the Aspinwall trade complex on a world map that shows the USA as the centre of the world. As a result in the video play this country becomes the eye of the storm around good and evil. The title of the artwork comes from Agha Shahid Ali’s translation of the Urdu poem “Lahu Ka Surag” by the Pakistani left wing intellectual and revolutionary poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Based on this poem and two books – Christa Wolf’s “Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays” and Rainer Maria Rilke’s “The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Bridge” – this video play creates a provocative environment whose imagery revolves around complex themes such as the curse of the prophecy, the fatal position of the widow in Indian society, and the failure of human communication. The soundtrack is inspired by a selection of texts from Heiner Mueller’s “Hamletmachine”, Samuel Beckett’s “Krapps Last Tape”, and the short story “Draupadi” by the Indian social activist and writer Mahasweta Devi, translated by Gayatri Spivak.