The Cube: Monica Rani Rudhar

In The Cube, artist Monica Rani Rudhar restages her video work We Were Connected in a More Complicated Way Than Either of Us Could Even Begin to Understand (2023) first shown as part of Primavera 2024, Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Monica is an artist based on Gadigal land, working across sculpture, video, and performance. Her practice explores the themes of longing and loss related to cultural identity, tracing intergenerational stories within her family to create space for imaginative possibilities. Born to Indian and Romanian migrant parents, her work is influenced by the forces of cultural conformity, essentialization, and commodification within a settler colonial context. Monica’s practice seeks to restore familial histories, traditions, and rituals that have been dispersed by the migration and displacement of her ancestors. Through her auto-ethnographic approach, she translates her family’s fragmented oral histories to reclaim narratives of relationships, resistance, and ritual. These stories intertwine, weaving a personal mythology that manifests their cultural fictions and futures in so-called Australia.

“Through a speculative mythological dreamscape, I rebirth a story that aims to rectify my past, through the guidance of my ancestors. Drawing on the ancient Indian celebration of Holi, and the practice of extracting yellow pigment, derived from cow urine after they have been fed mango leaves; I collapse and merge various personal timelines. These include the stories of my Romanian mother and her pet cow, Indian traditions passed down to me by my father, my mother’s mango cravings during her pregnancy and the sacredness of storytelling.

This work highlights the importance of preserving ancient traditions in a way to connect to both my ancestors and broader Indian community. As I reimagine my past, I also celebrate the resilience of my heritage and stories that heal and give guidance to future generations.”