reena saini kallat

Silt of Seasons

18th Dec 2008 - 17th Jan 2009

We are very pleased to present "Silt of Seasons", an exhibition of new works in varied media by Reena Saini Kallat at Chemould Prescott Road. This exhibition marks 10 years since the time of her first solo show with Gallery Chemould in 1998.

During this period Reena's work has been exhibited widely both nationally as well as internationally including venues such as Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo in 2003, The Culturgest Museum, Lisbon in 2004, The Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland and Busan MoMA in 2006, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, The Chicago Cultural Centre, Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art and Hangar Bicocca, Milan in 2007, besides IVAM Museum in Valencia, Spain and the Mori Art Museum in Japan this year amongst others. She has had several solo shows between Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, with the most recent being in Chicago, titled "Subject to Change without Notice."

In 'Silt of Seasons' the coming together of her recent body of work under one roof, including the varied media of sculpture, photography, painting and video reflect a wide range of her recurrent thematic engagements and interests: politics, evolutions in human conditions, notions of loss, territory and borders; her art practice pays careful attention to historical and contemporary narratives. For instance, the politics in India with its neighbour Pakistan, the unresolved dispute over Kashmir has been a source of friction between the nations, bringing it under the glare of world politics. Emanating from her belief that the disputed patch of land between the two nations is a space symbolic of human inanity, she has continued to engage with its form in several of her pieces.

Reena Saini Kallat works as artist and chronicler. Research towards facts and data often leads her to government offices. The names collected, permeate into the very essence of her work, whether names of the workers (in symbol forms) who built the Taj Mahal; names of persons who signed the peace petition between India and Pakistan; names of those who have gone missing due to various reasons. Seen collectively, if one observes the various bodies of work within the exhibition, Saini Kallat's concerns seem to address an overarching sense of loss. In her work there is an evocation of the loss of lives during partition, the continued loss of lives through war and terrorist activities, the loss of lives through accidents, murders, riots or natural calamities; the loss of Shahjahan's wife Mumtaz which prompted the building of the Taj Mahal, followed by the legendary myths of the actual builders whose hands were chopped off in order that the Taj Mahal remains a distinctly unique tomb.

Kallat Saini is interested in constructing images that seem to change and transform by the possibilities they carry for the generation of meaning through a calibrated interplay of image and form.

In the series of paintings Closet Quarries rubberstamps were used and references of the inlay patterns on the walls of the Taj Mahal and other Mughal architectural monuments found in India were taken. The rubberstamps carry names and symbols found engraved on the red sandstones laid along the back wall of the Taj Mahal and on the pathways leading to the Taj; similar carved names of the craftsmen are also seen in case of other Mughal monuments. These names, retrieved from the archives of the Archeological Survey of India, intercept the austere inlay patterns through text and symbols evoking notions of labour, memory and the submerged, factual and fictional, histories and myths that surround monument-making.

In 'Crease/ Crevice/ Contour', a collection of 10 photographs, the changing L.O.C. (Line Of Control) between India and Pakistan, from October 1947 to December 1948 is traced. It refers to the first of the four wars fought among the two newly independent nations over the region of Kashmir. The result of the war, still affects the geo-politics of both the countries to this day, leaving behind a deep sense of mistrust and many psychological scars. The photo-piece comprises names of those who've signed the peace petition between India and Pakistan. The work maps the movement of the LOC, showcasing 10 stages of the war through a diagrammatic sketch of the shifting border, finally leading up to the historical ceasefire. The photographs are close details of the back of a body stamped with names using rubber-stamps; the collective cluster of names forming the shifting territory between the two countries, appears like a residual scar of the never ending dispute.

In White Heat , the ironing board refers to the highly fortified relationship that India shares with its neighbour Pakistan and the uncertain nature of the peace process between the countries. The sculpture of an oversized iron placed on an ironing board seems dysfunctional due to the surface being densely loaded with numerous weapon-like projections. The sculpture playfully renders the frustrations of the never-ending dialogue, where any attempts at ironing out creases in the peace process are sabotaged by conflicting interests and with the misuse of religion as a divisive tool by both countries.

In the series Synonyms the works stand like screens holding up portraits formed by several hundred names of people rendered in scripts of over 14 Indian languages. From a distance they come together as portraits, but up-close they almost seem like a circuit-board of rubberstamps. The rubberstamps are made with names of those officially registered as having gone missing in India from different geographical zones. These include names of those lost either through natural calamities such as landslides, floods, earthquakes; or gone missing during riots or large scale mishaps; names of those abducted or absconding, with the police still trying to ascertain their whereabouts.

These are people who seem to have slipped out of the radar of human communication, thrown off the social safety net. The portrait of a sub-continental citizen is formed by numerous such names; the back of each portrait appearing like a sea of invisible identities, a bird's eye view of a large human congregation.

A video installation, Silt of Seasons projects names of persons who signed the most recent peace petition between the Government of India and Pakistan. The names of persons appearing here, are not necessarily from the two nations, but a collection of names from around the world, who signed the treaty. Names appear and fade away with the flying sand, only to morph into the next. The use of sand being a symbolic metaphor of something fragile, amorphous, and so easily blown to the wind.