BOOKSTala Madani: Chit Chat

SSSSTART Research Centre will launch the No.6 exhibition of “Genealogy Study of Artists” – Tala Madani Animation: Chit Chat, from November 14, 2020, to December 20, 2020. The exhibition will present 11 important animations created by Tala Madani from 2007 to 2020, including Madani’s first stop-motion animation “Chit Chat”(2007), major works in recent years “The Audience”(2018), “Manual Man”(2019), as well as her latest work “Fan” (2020).

Tala Madani is an Iranian-born American artist, best known for her sketchy brushstrokes and cartoon-like image narrative. Her work mainly depicts the stupidity, violence, and absurdity of man in the contemporary hyper-masculine world, putting forward challenges to the current social structure and power relationship in a cynical tone. Madani attained an MFA from Yale University in 2006 and started working on animation in 2007. Stop-motion animation “Chit Chat”(2007) is the title work of this exhibition, which witnessed the artist’s first attempt to develop from oil painting to moving image. Since then, the artist has worked continuously and created more than 20 animated works in total, making animation an indispensable part of her entire artistic exploration. In this exhibition, we selected a total of 11 representative animations of Madani’s in each period over the past 13 years, showing her transformation and development in the medium. The exhibition is also the first time that Tala Madani presents her works and ideas to the Chinese audience in the form of a solo exhibition.