Enlarged metal embroidery ring, electrical wires and parts
Reena Saini Kallat Siamese Trees, 2014 Enlarged metal embroidery ring, electrical wires and parts Diameter: 42 inches Siamese Trees consists of an enlarged embroidery ring, whose base-fabric itself is a painstakingly woven mesh of electrical wiring, forming a fence. This fencing is then treated as a ground for interweaving imagery that allude to two divergent narratives. One half of the tree is seen growing into the Banyan tree (national tree of India), while the other left half bifurcates into the Deodar tree (national tree of Pakistan). Over the years in several of her works, Reena Saini Kallat weaves together ideas of a shared historical past between India and Pakistan. While rooted and enmeshed in a complex civilizational history, despite the partitioning of their national political borders, there is a bank of natural resources that these two countries continue to share. The trees growing like conjoined Siamese twins, point to the defiance of nature in accepting these artificially imposed divisions. The entire piece is formed by electrical and communication cabling that are conduits of contact, yet entangled and often morphed into barriers, taking the form of barbed wires.
