Maalai
Maalai is a sound installation that explores the inheritance of intergenerational histories and trauma through Hindu iconography; written and photographic material; and Tamil recordings of conversations between Ramgopal, her mother Malathi, and her grandmother Nagalakshmi, who passed away earlier this year. The three speak about Nagalakshmi’s childhood; her mother Abayambal; her perspective on Indian Independence; and the separation of the family in its wake.
Maalai installation grapples with historian Antoinette Burton’s claim that the memories of home narrated by the women of India’s Late Colonial Period created “an archive from which a variety of counterhistories of colonial modernity can be discerned” to understand how South Indian women born before and after 1947 record their personal histories and when they choose to self-erase. Visitors are invited to sit by the altar, listen, touch the objects on the altar, and read the diary. Performances of Maalai integrate performance art as well as the Tamil, Hindi, and Sanskrit hymns and lullabies sung by Nagalakshmi.
Exhibition information:
6.1 - 7.29.18: Reinterpreting Religion (group show), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
Exhibition information:
Wednesday – Sunday, 12-4pm, free
Performance: Sunday, July 8, free
10.21.17: MCA Hearts Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Performance of Maalai at the conclusion of Lakshmi's set with Bindu Poroori and Lisa Mishra
10am, MCA Plaza
7.21.17: Remembery (group show), Chicago, IL
Exhibition information:
7-9pm, address to be shared day of.
6.22-25.17: The Power Project, Comfort Station, Chicago, IL
Exhibition information:
Thursday, June 22: 7-9pm
Friday, June 23: 5-7pm
Saturday, June 24: 12-3pm
Sunday, June 25: 12-3pm
Performance: Sunday, June 25 at 8:30pm
Maalai at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Photo: Sierra Thompson
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Sierra Thompson
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Stephanie Jensen
Photo: Sierra Thompson
Additional images may be found here.
Maalai at Comfort Station, Chicago, IL
