MALI is a virtual reality experience exploring the intersection of personal and collective memory within a metaphysical memory garden, where plants act like performers. In this immersive space, memories evolve, fade, and transform. The garden reflects the need for storytelling to keep memory alive.
The experience weaves a personal narrative of amnesia with reflections on the collective trauma of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster, raising questions about forgetting, remembrance, and justice.
Inspired by Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire, the garden becomes a symbolic site where memory is preserved and reimagined—not a literal archive, but a living, reflective space where remembering resists erasure.
Saumya Shukla
Saumya is a visual storyteller from India. She holds a bachelor's degree in Fashion Communication from National Institute of Fashion Technology, Mumbai. Her work spans graphic design, branding, illustration, children's books and public art.
She has worked on publications with Room to Read, Ektara, Eklavya, and National Book Trust, and co-directed documentaries on social themes, most recently about women leaders in rural India with Solidaridad.
Saumya's work is often lined with nostalgia- whether for the past, or the present that will become one. She often builds dreamscapes, sometimes set within confines. Her practice centres on creating spaces for reflection in a time of uncertainty. At RCA, she has been experimenting with mediums to build more immersive forms of engagement.
Instagram: @i.am.drifting
Email: 10043190@network.rca.ac.uk