FROM THE BIRDSONGS BORDER
Artist Reena Saini Kallat’s philosophical quest for a world without borders continues with Blind Spots, a new show offering birdsongs, hybrid animals and preambles as antidote to violence and conflict. Excerpts from an interview:
Q. What can viewers expect from your latest solo? Blind Spots is derived from the physiological blind spot in medical literature or the missing component in our vision. No two people see exactly alike and the brain interpolates the blind spot based on other information to conceptually complete the gap to derive meaning, which shapes our experiences. I’ve worked with the preamble to the Constitution of India since 2003. In this exhibition, I’m revisiting the promise of democracy at a time when most democracies are under strain. In the video installation, Blind Spots, you see pairs of Snellen eye charts where one alphabet at a time appears as a fragmented recital from the preambles to the constitutions of conflictridden countries. We have long histories as shared civilisations. Whether it is India and Pakistan or Israel and Palestine, we all essentially carry the same aspirations.
Q. Does your fascination with themes like conflict, borders and migration stem from your family’s history with Partition?
My father, born in Lahore, moved to the Indian side of Punjab before Partition. My father would talk about the homes they lived in, but there was silence around Partition. I began re-examining the impact of the legacy of Partition when my own experience of Mumbai changed after the 1992 and 2002 riots. The LoC became a recurring motif in my work, with the interest going beyond physical borders and towards psychological and social barriers between people. I believe not only do we shape maps but maps too shape our perceptions of a place. The ‘line’ is an important part of an artist’s tool-kit and yet, when drawn across territories, it can have huge implications. Look at the arbitrarily drawn Radcliffe, Durand or McMahon Lines, dividing ethnic and religious communities and natural forms. Through ‘Leaking Lines’ (a suite of drawings), I wanted to reclaim the line back onto paper and to look at the tensions, forming geographic terrains with an electric wire.
Q. What, to your mind, is the aim of art in general?
I hope that in these polarised times, through art we can still find a space to reflect upon our own perceptual limitations. If we can tune in and listen more closely, we’ll receive signals from the natural world. The sound sculptures in Blind Spots are modelled on pre-radar acoustic devices built during the world wars to track sounds of enemy aircraft, but I have replaced them with birdsongs to subvert the notions of war by having national birds of “enemy nations” singing to each other across borders. I am also showing a range of drawings forming a globe that are imaginary hybrids— so, India’s peacock is conjoined with Pakistan’s Chukar. I call it ‘Pea-kar’. ■
—with Shaikh Ayaz