Leaking Lines, 2019

Basel 2019
Leaking Lines

Chemould Prescott Road

Mixed Media
Electric wires, steel nails, charcoal, embossed and laser cut arches paper
33.0 x 33.0 x 6.0 (cm)
13.0 x 13.0 x 2.4 (inch)
In Reena Kallat's works over the last several years the border, the territory and the map have recurred as potent forms that point to broad historical narratives as well as the manner in which human kind have left the imprint of history on geography. In the recent suite of six drawings titled ‘Leaking Lines’, Reena intentionally conflates the ‘line’, a primary artistic device with epic territorial delineations; here tense international borders and fortifications during wars appear like charred fissures on the surface of the paper. Conceived as diptychs, one part rendered in charcoal reveals the factual landscape, while the other forming a flayed fence using electric wires form rich cartographic abstractions that invoke undulating terrain.