M+ Facade presents In Search of Vanished Blood by moving image pioneer Nalini Malani

The new work In Search of Vanished Blood (2012/22) by moving image pioneer Nalini Malani commissioned by M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, will be on display on M+ Facade starting from Friday, 5 August 2022. Comprising live-action performance, animation, drawing, painting, and found footage, this silent eight-and-a-half-minute video is the third commission to be showcased on the M+ Facade. It also complements the artist’s spectacular exhibition Nalini Malani: Vision in Motion on display in The Studio at B2 Level of M+ until Sunday, 4 September 2022.

In Search of Vanished Blood continues Malani’s longstanding artistic investigation into the effects of war, violence, and the repression of women. An adaptation of a work first exhibited in 2012 at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. This new commission creatively harnesses the unique capabilities of the M+ Facade, creating a bold visual dialogue with Hong Kong's dynamic night-time skyline. Malani’s enigmatic video mingles coded images from Greek and Hindu mythology with personal and real-world references, layering architectural forms, cloudy skies, world maps, human faces, and a gigantic prostrate female figure that emerge from shadows and darkness.

In Search of Vanished Blood’s fragmented narrative is heavily inspired by the German writer and critic Christa Wolf’s 1983 novel Cassandra, which re-tells the story of the fall of Troy, but from the point of view of the woman whose visionary powers earned her contempt and scorn. Trojan priestess Cassandra foretold the costs of the destructive Graeco-Trojan War but was cursed to have her prophecies go unheeded. Through Cassandra, Malani re-evaluates epic narratives to consider the erasure and side-lining of women’s knowledge and experience throughout history. In In Search of Vanished Blood the looming figure of Cassandra reappears, her steady, unflinching gaze urging onlookers to pay attention to hidden and ignored social injustices.

Cassandra also serves as a vehicle for Malani’s continued investigation into vision and visibility. Throughout In Search of Vanished Blood, Cassandra’s face and body are cloaked in shadows, while flashes of colour and light disrupt and obfuscate her image. In one scene, Eadweard Muybridge’s racing greyhounds, from his pioneering study into the physics of motion, are projected over her face and eyes. Here, the dogs run towards each other, threatening a collision. Malani seems to suggest that Cassandra holds the power to see into the future, but her vision for humankind is ominous, despite civilisation’s technological and scientific progress.

Another critical theme of the work is miscommunication. A hallmark of human beings is the ability to use language to communicate; however, In Search of Vanished Blood features various failed attempts at connection. Cassandra was the ignored prophet of doom; in Malani’s video an animated, illuminated hand gestures frantically and incomprehensibly in sign language, suggesting a desperate, futile plea to be heard. Similarly, in the final scene, a troop of World War I soldiers rehearse semaphore signalling, their stilted flag-waving representing another mode of transmission in a long lineage of imperfect communication practices.

In Search of Vanished Blood will be displayed on the M+ Facade from Friday, 5 August 2022 until Sunday, 2 October 2022, from 7pm to 9:10pm daily. From Saturday, 8 October 2022 to Sunday, 30 October 2022, the work will be presented from 7pm to 9:10pm during the weekends only.

In tandem with the two presentations in the Studio and on the M+ Facade, Malani’s newly commissioned artwork titled LIFE (2022) will take over M+’s Instagram account from Wednesday,10 August 2022 to Thursday, 18 August 2022. This will mark our first-ever artist digital commission specifically for Instagram. Comprised of nine animations, one animation will be posted each day over nine consecutive days. The work makes reference to the poem The Elements of Composition by Indian poet and scholar A. K. Ramanujan as a metaphor for the cyclical movement and nature of life, death, and the afterlife.

Malani is widely recognised as a leading figure of moving image art, best known for her Video/ Shadow Play works, experimental animations, and multi-panel reverse paintings. Her practice continues to evolve as she embraces new technologies and ways of working.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, expresses her delight with M+’s second collaboration with Malani and articulates the project’s contribution to Hong Kong’s vibrant art landscape: ‘We are beyond elated to collaborate once again with Nalini Malani for In Search of Vanished Blood. Facing out towards Hong Kong's iconic Victoria Harbour, the M+ Facade is a world-class digital canvas and a comprehensive curatorial space, which enables our innovative commissions to become a part of the city’s spectacular skyline. Through our platform, we hope to introduce the wider public to Malani’s distinctive vision and remarkable storytelling, as well as strengthen our city’s understanding of contemporary visual culture.’

Doryun Chong, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Chief Curator, M+, underscores the significance of Malani’s artistic practice: ‘As a trailblazer of the contemporary moving image, Nalini Malani is undoubtedly one of the most prolific cross-disciplinary artists working today. Her innovative multimedia creations not only deploy centuries-old, pre-cinematic art forms, but also embrace new technologies and mediums to chronicle personal narratives and address collective intergenerational, cultural, and social issues. In Search of Vanished Blood examines why disenfranchisement has persisted throughout history and cross civilisations. I believe Malani’s creative vision—her timeless melding of folklore and literature with the everyday, will connect with audiences from around the city and stimulate fruitful, inspiring dialogues.’

Ulanda Blair, Curator, Moving Image, M+, further emphasises the relevance of Malani’s powerful work for M+: ‘In her many years of pushing the interdisciplinary potentials of video art and film, Nalini Malani has presented her work across galleries, theatres, public spaces, and online. In Search of Vanished Blood’s enigmatic imagery, striking colours, and pulsating energy, coupled with the unique technological capabilities of the M+ Facade, represents another milestone in Malani’s incredible legacy.’ 

Nalini Malini shares her anticipation for the commission’s premiere, ‘I hope In Search of Vanished Blood offers a moment of careful rumination and reflection for the audience and invites them to revisit societal norms and retrace histories, in particular those related to societal violence and violence committed against women.’

Remarks

About Nalini Malani
Born in Karachi, British India (now Pakistan) in 1946, Malani studied at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art in Mumbai from 1964 to 1969, during which she had a studio at the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute. In 1969, she was invited to participate in the Vision Exchange Workshop (VIEW) where she made her first stop-motion animation and a series of black-and-white films. She continued her studies in Paris from 1970 to 1972 with a scholarship from the French government, and in 2010, she received an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute. Malani has had retrospectives at Centre Pompidou, Castello di Rivoli, and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, as well as thirty solo presentations in museums around the world.

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.