Reena Saini Kallat, Woven Chronicle (2011-19) — Art and Migration Virtual Exhibition Tour

Reena Saini Kallat (Born 1973 in New Delhi)
Woven Chronicle, 2011-19
Electrical wires, 揚聲器, circuit boards, and fittings; single-channel audio (10:00 分鐘)
Approximately 13 X 42 X 2 腳 (396.2 × 1280.2 X 61 厘米)
Courtesy Reena Kallat Studio and Nature Morte, 新德里

The first work that greets you as you enter into the exhibition, “When Home Won’t Let You Stay” is Woven Chronicle, a map-based wall drawing that, in artist Reena Kallat’s words, represents “the global flows and movements of travelers, 移民, and labor.”

Kallat uses electrical wires to create the lines, which are based on her meticulous research of transnational flows. The map is paired with a soundscape that evokes the steady hum of global movement.

Here wire is utilized as an evocative and contradictory material: it operates as both a conduit of electricity, used to connect people across vast distances, and as a weaponized obstacle, as in the barbed wire fences used to mark borders and encircle refugee camps.

This work merges the artist’s personal history and her research on migration with metaphors of violence.

Kallat’s family was splintered by the Partition of India in 1947 upon independence from Britain, which divided the country geographically along religious lines and caused the movement of more than 10 million people in one of the largest forced migrations in human history.

new.artsmia.org/when-home-wont-let-you-stay-art-and-migration/