Anonymous And Forgotten Statistics

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Delhi-born, Mumbai-based artist Reena Kallat reflected on her studio practice, which involves simultaneous contemplation of multiple materials, structures, and concepts to re-code various experiences into meaningful forms, all at different stages of completion. Her projects often employ painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation for a single work. Frequently, she works with officially recorded or registered people, objects, monuments, and events that are lost or have disappeared without a trace, only to get listed as anonymous and forgotten statistics. Reena elaborated on one of her beautiful and moving pieces: Light leaks, winds meet where the waters spill deceit (2010), a sculpture made of metal, thread, fly zapper with UV fluorescent tubes and electrified grid, modeled on the gates that demarcate the boundary between India and Pakistan at the Wagah Attari border. In a recent text-based series Saline Notations (2013), Reena used salt as a medium to explore preservation concepts, and the tenuous yet intrinsic relationship between the body and the oceans.