INTERVIEW
Nalini Malani: Her Cassandra Complex
By Murtaza Vali

Mumbai-based Nalini Malani began painting in the 1960s and has remained at the cutting edge of contemporary art throughout her long career, expanding her practice in the 1990s to include theater collaborations, video installations and shadow plays—installations of... [more]

ON LOCATION
Karachi: Cultural Safe Haven
By Allison White

An ethnically diverse metropolis of 15 million, the port city of Karachi lies on Pakistan’s southern coast. Geographically and socially removed from the northwestern tribal areas that Western commentators call “the most dangerous place in the world” because of... [more]

Singapore & Thailand Pavilions: Cinema Paradiso
By Philip Cornwel-Smith

Amid economic calamity, people seek solace in fantasy. For this year’s Venice Biennale, the Thailand and Singapore pavilions—the only two representing Southeast Asia—toy with two kinds of escapism: going to the movies and taking a vacation. Recession also fuels nostalgia. The Southeast Asian artists at Venice interpret the 2009 Biennale theme of “Making Worlds” by... [more]

Pak Sheung Chuen: Art of Covert Intervention
By Olivier Krischer

Ever bought half a watermelon and wondered who bought the other half? Or, as Pak Sheung Chuen would put it: who did you share your watermelon with? Which anonymous individual were you connected to through this piece of conveniently pre-cut fruit? Whether presented as performance art, photographic documentation of performance art, installation or... [more]