Malani often draws on literary texts that foreground the perspectives and experiences of women. This work was first presented as part of the set for a theatrical production staged in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in 1996 and adapted from the German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s short story The Job. In Brecht’s tale, a woman disguises herself as her late husband in order to assume his job as a night watchman and support her family. She is ultimately caught and dismissed for her desperate act of deception. Malani’s stop-motion animation imaginatively interprets this narrative, using charcoal, red chalk, and watercolor to draw each frame, then quickly erasing it, and drawing over its remains. Through this process, she makes literal the erasure of women throughout history as they are denied agency over their bodies and labor.

Gallery label from

2024

Medium Standard-definition video (color, sound)
Duration 10:27 min.
Credit Anonymous gift
Object number 267.2015
Department Media and Performance

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