The Teller of Tales

In the reverse painted triptych, The Teller of Tales, Malani has placed the female protagonist, the storyteller, in the lower part of the right panel, from here words about the fragility of life, sparks from her hands all over the painting in different shapes and forms. This is a narrative that works on three levels - from the 19th century Bengal peasant liberation movement, to the quote from the German female philosopher and political theorist Hanna Arendt who speaks of the continuation of life. And finally to the philosophical note of the Polish female poet Wislawa Szymborska, where in our improvised faulty ways, we are still able to live on.

The work was featured as part of the exhibition 'The Witness' by Nalini Malani. The exhibition was curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta and Johan Pijnappel. In this exhibition, Nalini Malani explored concepts and concerns that have preoccupied her for decades - notions of oppression and dominance, of freedom and justice.