Reena Saini Kallat Saline Notations,
2015
Digital prints on Hahnemuhle Photo rag archival paper
24 x 24 inches each
Edition 1/5
Reena Kallat, has been working with salt in various contexts, occasionally within her sculptural practice as metaphor for sustenance but also to write transient texts on the beach-front, wherein the text might manifest briefly, soon to be absorbed back by the sea, often as a gesture of what she calls, ‘resistance against forgetting’. Salt, an essential mineral for human existence, equally used as a preservative, one that extends life is often cited in various religious traditions as a symbol of permanence, value and purification. Her series of works using salt explores the tenuous yet intrinsic relationship between the body and the oceans highlighting the fragility and unpredictability of existence. The four poems by women writers from India are translations from regional languages such as Urdu, Gujarati and Telugu into English. The text based works in salt have an element of surrender, their submission to the variables of nature incorporates time as a crucial element of the production of the work. Reena works collaboratively keeping in mind tidal calendars, sunset timings etc., which form an unseen, and unlikely, backdrop to the fleeting presence of the salt.
